The Abandoned Region
by The Hooded Author
Summary: Fifteen-year-old Amber Sky once made a vow that she would never battle with her pokémon again, but when she wakes up on an unfamiliar beach it looks like she might have to break that promise. Will she find her way home without going back on her words? And what will she do when she discovers that the region she's found herself in isn't all that it seems?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Slowly, Amber Sky rose from a deep sleep. She had no idea how long she'd been out for, but judging by the harshness of the sunlight shining through her flickering eyelids, it must have been a while. She lay in silence for a moment. Getting out of bed was always the hardest part of the day.

As each of her senses began to wake up, she started to realise that something wasn't quite right. No, a lot of things weren't quite right. For starters, she certainly wasn't in her bed, and the ground beneath her was oddly cold and damp. Her clothes felt all wrong too, far tighter than her usual night-wear.

She tried to convince herself that she was in some weird dream. Everything would surely go back to normal if she just stayed there and let herself drift back into consciousness. As she tried to close her eyes tighter, however, she noticed something else.

The sound of waves.

Amber bolted upright, opened her eyes wide and gasped as she realised her surroundings.

She wasn't in her room. Hell, she wasn't even in her house. Above her was a clear blue sky and intense sunlight. She looked down to find that the cold, damp substance she had been lying on was a soft, golden sand.

_Where… am I?_

It was pretty obvious that Amber was on a beach, but it certainly wasn't like any beach near her home. The only place similar in Unova that she was aware of was the Desert Resort, but nearby cities were always in view there. She turned her head and stared out into every direction, but there was nothing. Just the sand stretching out in front of her and an endless ocean behind her.

She stood up and tried her best to recall how she had gotten there, but ended up with nothing but a mild headache. The last thing she could remember clearly was eating dinner with her mother and sister, but she couldn't even tell how long ago that had been. Everything afterwards was a total blur.

Where were they now? Still at home, she hoped, although the idea of them waking up and finding her missing wasn't exactly a pleasant thought. They'd probably end up call the police, but how were they meant to find her when she herself had no idea where she was.

She pulled herself to her feet and examined herself. She was wearing a sleeveless, orange jacket, a pair of old jeans and worn out trainers – the same clothes she had worn on her journey a few months ago. She was glad that her clothes were at least familiar, although she had no idea what had convinced her to put them back on after all this time. Well, at least she _hoped_ that she'd put them on herself.

She took a quick glance at her belt and saw that she had a single pokéball on her. She unclipped it and could immediately tell from the scratches who was in it. _Emolga._

She breathed a sigh of relief. At least she wasn't totally alone, and the electric squirrel was as good a friend as any to get totally lost with. She contemplated letting it out for a moment, but decided not to and clipped the ball back onto her belt. Who knew how dangerous the area was? It was a beach, after all – it wouldn't be totally surprising to find some rock types lurking about.

As she took another look at her surroundings, something on her left wrist caught the corner of her eye. She brought her arm up to her face and found that she was wearing some strange kind of digital watch. The screen was blank. Amber tapped it furiously, trying to get some kind of response, but it remained completely dead.

_Must be out of batteries or something…_

She stood still for a moment and assessed the situation. She was alone, on a strange beach she'd never seen before, wearing clothes she hadn't worn in months. The only sound she could hear was the crashing of the ocean and there didn't seem to be anything in front of her but miles and miles of sand.

It seemed that the only appropriate action was to break down into tears, but that wouldn't help the situation at all. Instead, Amber took a deep breath and thought things through carefully. If she wanted to find a way home, she had to first find a way to survive long enough to put together a plan. That meant that her first objective should be finding some food.

She took one last look at the ocean and tried to see if she could recognise anything in the distance, but found nothing. She ran a frustrated hand through her short, red hair, then turned and started walking in the other direction.

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After walking for a good twenty minutes, Amber realised that she was almost at the end of the beach and some buildings were finally coming into view. It was about time too, as the trek had left her completely exhausted. Apparently sitting around the house doing nothing for months on end wasn't the healthiest of lifestyles.

What she hadn't seen on her walk was any signs of life, which was odd considering it was such a nice day. Why didn't anyone want to spend some time on the beach?

She stopped in front of a small shop that sat between the beach and what looked like a small city. She could now see a lighthouse and some other tall buildings not too far from her, but she decided to try the shop first.

There was an old, faded sign stuck firmly in the sand that read _Seashore House _along with a short list of food and drink items that were apparently for sale. Unfortunately, however, the shop was almost definitely shut. The windows were all boarded up and there was no noise coming from inside.

Still, it was worth a try, and Amber placed her hand against the rotting door and gently pushed against it. To her surprise, it swung open and the path in front of her was lit up by the sun.

As she hesitantly stepped inside, it became clear to her that someone else had been there recently. Even in the dim light, she could tell that the tables and chairs that were lined up against the walls were in almost perfect condition, and the air was filled with the smell of food.

At the very back of the room was a small fridge. Amber slowly opened it, releasing more light into the shop. She gasped, surprised to discover that the fridge was filled with food. She grabbed a cheese sandwich from a plate on the top shelf and examined it carefully. She hadn't realised just how hungry she was until now. The food smelled fresh, and there didn't seem to be anything too suspicious about it. Still, it was impossible to tell. After everything that had happened already, poisoned sandwiches would hardly be surprising.

Even so, it didn't seem likely that someone would take all the effort of dumping her on a beach only to kill her with poison twenty minutes later. Besides, if she didn't eat at some point she was going to die of starvation anyway, so what difference did it make?

As she tore into the sandwich, she examined the other contents of the fridge. It seemed to be mostly filled with assorted rolls and sandwiches, each of them made-up with various vegetables, jams and cheeses. There were also a couple of cartons of milk and some tubs of yoghurt.

Once she'd finished her sandwich, Amber stepped back from the fridge and examined the rest of the room. She was standing in some sort of kitchen, complete with an oven and a small sink. Then she noticed it - sitting on one of the tables was an empty backpack.

Suddenly she felt very uneasy. She hadn't really noticed it before because she was too preoccupied with filling her stomach, but everything about the room was too perfect. It didn't seem like someone was trying to kill her. It was almost as if they were trying to keep her alive, long enough to…

To what? She had no idea, but it probably wasn't good. Still, it wasn't like she had a choice. She grabbed the backpack off the table and unzipped it. It was fairly big, and she was sure it could hold enough food and drink to last her at least a few days.

She searched through the kitchen's drawers until she found a roll of cellophane and used it to wrap as many sandwiches from the fridge as she thought was necessary. She then took one of the milk cartons and emptied it down the sink before filling it back up with water from the tap. She stuffed everything into the bag and swung it over her shoulder.

She almost felt like she was back on her journey, about to venture off into the unknown with only her pokémon to protect her. Of course, this time things would be far more dangerous than they were back then, and that was saying something. She hoped desperately this adventure wouldn't end up like the last.

_No, I'll be fine. I'll just do my best to avoid any fighting until I can figure out a way home._

She was just about to leave when the device on her arm lit up, illuminating a tiny bit of the room in front of her. She quickly pulled her wrist up to her face to see what was happening.

On the screen was a large, orange D. Before Amber had the chance to wonder what the letter could stand for, a voice spoke out from the device.

"Greetings, trainer," the voice spoke. It was heavily synthesised, to the point of it being impossible to tell even the gender of the speaker. "By now you are probably wondering where you are. Well, don't worry - all will be explained. Currently, you are standing in the Hoenn region."

_Hoenn? _The name was familiar, although Amber had no idea why. She was certain she'd never been before. Trying to remember just resulted in another headache.

"If you'd like to know your exact location, please look at the bracelet on your wrist."

The image on the device flickered and was replaced with a tiny map of the region. A square towards the south of the map was flashing rapidly. Amber tapped the square and the screen changed again to a more detailed, birds-eye image of what was clearly the beach she was standing on, complete with the Seashore House at the very top. Above the image were the words _Route 109. _She tapped the back button and was greeted again with the full map.

"Now, I guess all of you want to know how to get home. Well, I do apologise, but leaving just isn't possible at the moment. But don't panic, returning is easy."

Amber breathed a sigh of relief. There was a chance. All she had to do was do whatever this person wanted. Sticking to the rules was admittedly not one of her strong suits, but she was confident she could play along if it meant seeing her family again.

"All you have to do is what you've always had to do – win. More specifically, win the Hoenn League. You have three months to collect all eight badges and defeat the Elite Four and claim the champion's title. Whoever holds the title at the end of the three months will get to leave."

_Oh God, I'm never going to get home…_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Even after the voice had stopped, Amber stood staring blankly at the bracelet. This was going to be a difficult one to get out of. Obviously her main priority was finding a way home but even so, entering another tournament was the last thing she wanted to do. Besides, was it really a good idea to just go along with what she was being told to do in the first place? No, there had to be another way.

Looking at the map again, she quickly realised that Hoenn was surrounded by water. It was impossible to tell if there were any other regions nearby, although she had a feeling she was very far from Unova. Still, if she could just get her hands on a powerful enough water or flying type, she could possibly escape. It seemed unlikely that whoever had brought her here would allow for such an obvious flaw in their plan, but it was definitely worth a shot. She wasn't happy with the idea of training up a pokémon, but she supposed she could try catch something that was already strong enough to carry her. She could even ask to borrow another trainer's pokémon if she ran into one.

Right, the other trainers…

The way the voice had spoken made it sound like the others were just as lost as she was. That could be a problem depending on how desperately they wanted to get home – if they saw her, there was no telling what they'd do just to narrow down the competition. It'd probably be a good idea to try and stay hidden as much as possible. It would mean she'd have to find another way of getting her hands on a pokémon, but it wasn't worth the risk.

Amber took one last look at the dimly-lit shop, scanning every nook and cranny to make sure there were no more useful items lying around. Once she was convinced there was nothing left, she turned and walked back outside.

She had no idea how she was going to get off the region, but it was clear that the answer wasn't going to be found in the vast, empty beach. There wasn't even any litter lying around that could be shaped into a helpful object. It seemed like her only option was to head off towards the city.

Clicking on the bracelet's map brought up a list of details about the location. Apparently, Slateport City was a small port town that mainly acted as a harbour for the region's ships and boats. Perhaps if Amber could just find a sailor she could hitch a lift home, although she somehow doubted it would be that easy.

Finally, she made it to the city's entrance and was instantly greeted with a colourful marketplace. It was a small, fenced off area filled with the kind of stands you'd usually find selling fresh fruit. Like the beach, however, the market was completely lifeless.

A cool sea-breeze rolled past Amber and a chill ran up her spine. It was kind of eerie, being totally alone in a place that should be filled with people. She quickly decided that she'd rather not stay there any longer and headed out towards the rest of the city.

She walked around for a bit, but there was still no sign of another human being. The town was undeniably pretty – a beautifully decorated contest hall stood at the entrance to the next route, and the constant smell of the sea reminded her of Castelia City's harbour. Even so, the fact that the entire place was totally dead was putting her on edge.

There wasn't a single light on in any of the houses, and every one of them was locked. Knocking on the doors didn't elicit any responses either, so she assumed they were all as empty as the beach and market.

Amber sighed. She had never minded being alone before, and she had always wished for a bit more time to herself - living with an eleven year old sister wasn't exactly relaxing. This, however, was far too much. She needed someone who could guide her down the right path, or at least somebody to comfort her.

Of course, there was also the question of where everyone was. Was the person who had brought her here really powerful enough to force all those people to leave? Or had they already left and the person was just taking advantage of the situation? Neither thought was particularly comforting.

Amber sat down on the ground and propped herself up against one of the houses. She noticed for the first time that her entire body was shaking. She was scared. Back home, she had always prided herself on being the most mature out of all her friends, but out here she felt like a little kid who'd gotten lost on holiday. There was no-one to help her now – it was just her and the other trainers, wherever they were, and they were hardly going to help out their competition.

She unclipped the lone poké ball on her belt and clicked the button. Emolga materialised in front of her, smiling brightly as always, but as soon as he saw his trainer's sad face his expression changed to one of confusion. Amber grabbed him with both arms and pulled her tightly into her chest.

They sat like that for a while, huddled into a warm ball on the ground. Eventually, Amber loosened her grip and held the pokémon out in front of her face. "Okay, listen," she said, trying to keep her quivering voice level. "I don't know where we are, but I promise that I'll get us both home safely, okay?" The pokémon still looked confused, but it nodded anyway.

As she started to walk around the city once more, she decided to let Emolga sit on her shoulder and she immediately felt at least a little bit less lonely.

Since she'd already tried all the houses, she thought she might as well give the other buildings a go. Most of them were locked up, and those that weren't were abandoned anyway. The pokécentre was lit up and the healing machine behind the counter was still functioning, but the lack of a nurse meant it was up to the trainers to work out how to use it. The mart was open as well, with a scanning machine replacing the cashier. The dock was also open, but to Amber's dismay there wasn't a single ship in sight. There goes that plan… The only building left for her to try was the museum. She walked in through the already open door, silently praying that she'd find something (or someone) helpful inside.

The museum was fairly small and most of the ground floor was filled with various display cabinets. Each one had a small card next to it explaining what they were, but Amber didn't really understand any of it. Still, she examined them all carefully, hoping that one of them would give her some inspiration for an escape plan.

After a few minutes, it was already clear that none of the displays were going to be helpful. They all seemed to explain different aspects of the ocean, which was neither useful nor interesting to Amber. She was tempted to leave and head off to the next route, but she didn't want to leave any part of Slateport unexplored just in the off chance that she'd miss something important. Even though she knew the chances of finding something interesting were minimal, she headed up the stairs at the back of the room.

She realised pretty much instantly that the second floor was, if anything, less interesting than the first. There were some models of boats and submarines which admittedly would be useful if they were full size, or at least had some information on where to find them. The only other display was a couple of glass cases which apparently held water samples from a couple of regions Amber had not heard of.

She was just about to turn around and leave the museum when she heard something she hadn't heard since she first woke up on the beach: footsteps. Someone was walking up the stairs to the second floor.

She wanted to hide or run, but both were impossible in the tiny room. Instead she just froze. Her breath was heavy and her heart was beating faster and faster in her chest. There was nothing she could do.

Finally, the person made it to the top of the stairs – a short, blonde girl, maybe a year or two younger than Amber. She stared at the girl for a moment, unsure of how to react. The girl looked innocent enough, but there was no telling what she'd do. The bottom half of a poké ball was poking out from underneath her black hoodie. Amber felt Emolga tense up on her shoulder, probably sensing his trainer's anxiety.

The girl gasped - clearly she wasn't expecting to find anyone in the museum – but she quickly regained her composure. Her features softened and she smiled widely. "Hi, I'm Hailey. What's your name?"

Amber continued staring at her, struggling to find the right words. Why would anyone react like that? She didn't even seem too surprised to find another human. "A-Amber," she managed finally.

"Well, hello Amber," the girl said as she walked up to her. "Aw, that's a cute pokémon you've got there!" She reached her hand out to pet Emolga, but Amber pulled her shoulder backwards to stop her. The girl looked confused for a moment, but quickly shook it off and smiled again. "Sorry, does he not like not being pet? One moment, I've got some treats if he'd like them…"

Amber watched as the girl pulled off her backpack and started to rummage through it. She didn't seem dangerous, but the poké ball meant she was most likely another trainer, and that meant that she'd view Amber as competition.

"Here you go," the girl said finally, pulling a bag of berries out of her backpack. She took a juicy-looking oran berry and stretched her hand out.

"Th-thanks, but we don't –" Amber started, but Emolga quickly flew off of her shoulder and darted towards Hailey. He ate the berry with glee.

"Don't worry about it, I've got a couple more bags for my own pokémon," Hailey said, completely misunderstanding Amber's apprehension. "So, where're you from, anyway?" she asked as she softly petted Emolga's head.

Amber hesitated. Did she really want to give away that kind of information to a stranger, particularly one who could be viewing her as an enemy? Then again, it had been nice of her to offer those berries, and Emolga seemed to like her. "Nacrene City," she answered eventually. "Unova."

"Ah, I've always wanted to visit there. I'm from Florama myself. It's a small town in Sinnoh, you probably won't know about it. But it's nice there. A lot of flowers..."

Once Emolga was finished with the berry, he quickly grew bored of being petted and squirmed free of Hailey's hand to fly back to his trainer's shoulder.

"Oh, he likes you." Hailey giggled. "Maybe almost as much as he likes berries," she added with a playful wink.

"Y-yeah," Amber said, still slightly confused. "Actually, if you don't mind me asking, where did you get those?"

"Oh, there were a couple of bushes where we woke up. We found some sandwiches and stuff as well in a place called the Trick House, if you'd like some."

"No thanks, I've already got enough food to last me for a bit." She was admittedly a little relieved at the fact Hailey had found food of her own – it meant she wouldn't have to share any of hers. Suddenly, she realised something. "Wait, did you say we?" she asked, wondering if she'd just been referring to her pokémon.

"Oh yeah, there was a boy too, maybe around your age. Said his name was Nathaniel. You know him?"

Amber shook her head. It was odd that two people had woken up in the same place, but she'd been completely alone. The more she thought about it, however, the more it made sense. There had been far too much food in that fridge for one person to carry, and the voice from her bracelet had sounded like it was talking to a group rather than an individual. But if that was the case, where was the person now? There was only one backpack in the Seashore House, which meant they must have gone there before her, but the food in the fridge was completely untouched. Why hadn't they taken any with them? She pushed it to the back of her mind. It was just another mystery to add to the ever-growing pile.

"Where is he now?" Amber asked. Perhaps this Nathaniel person had his own agenda in mind.

"Oh, he headed up Route 110 towards Mauville City. He said that's where the gym was. I just headed down this way to see if there were any people or pokémon who could help me before I follow after him."

Amber sighed in disappointment. Great, they're both sticking to the rules. Ah well, I guess that's to be expected…

"Well, I've walked all the way up from Route 109, and you're the first person I've seen," Amber said. "And I haven't seen any wild pokémon either, so I guess you're out of luck. Sorry."

"Oh, that's fine," Hailey said with barely a trace of disappointment. "There are a couple of wild pokémon between here and Mauville anyway, I'm sure I'll be able to catch something. I was more looking for trainers, and I found you, so that's good enough. Now come on, we'd better head off."

Before Amber could say anything, Hailey turned and skipped down the stairs. She stood for a moment, trying to work out exactly what the girl had just said before dashing off after her.

"Wait!" Amber called after her as she hurried out of the building. Hailey stopped and turned around as Amber caught up with her outside. "What do you mean 'we'?"

Hailey looked at her for a moment, not quite understanding what she meant. "Well, we're both heading to the gym, right? We might as well walk there together."

Now it was Amber's turn to not understand. Was the girl really suggesting they team up? "Okay, two things," she said eventually. "First of all, aren't we technically enemies? I mean, only one person can go home, right?"

Hailey cocked her head and furrowed her brow. "Well, I guess that is one way of looking at it. But then we're all on the same boat, really, so we might as well try to get along, at least until the end of the three months. It sounds like whoever is behind all this wants us to see each other as enemies, but I don't think that's the best way to do things."

Amber didn't know whether to smile or roll her eyes. Maybe the girl wasn't quite as willing to play along with the rules as she had first thought, and doing the exact opposite of whatever the voice told them to do was definitely something she could get behind. But she was still willing to fight the gym leaders, which was annoying, and her way of looking at things seemed rather naïve. Kindness wasn't going to help much when a stronger trainer tried to kill her just to make their life a little bit easier.

"Second of all," Amber continued, "I wasn't really thinking about heading to the gym."

Hailey smiled. "Ah, you want to catch some more pokémon first. I get you. I can wait if you'd like."

Amber took a deep breath. This girl was really going to test her patience. "No, I mean I wasn't going thinking about heading to the gym at all."

Hailey looked puzzled. "Okay, you've lost me. How are you going to get home if you don't challenge the gyms?"

Amber paused to think. That was the part she hadn't worked out yet. "I'm… still working on it."

"Okay," Hailey said, still slightly confused. "I'm not sure I understand, but whatever. I'm not going to tell you what to do. I will say one thing though."

"Nothing you say will change my mind." She walked past the girl and scanned the area, trying to work out which was the best way to go.

"What if I told you that Mauville City is pretty much the only place you can get to from here?"

Amber froze. She hadn't really looked at anywhere on the map past Slateport, but now that she thought about it, she didn't remember seeing any other cities that could be reached on foot. "Oh."

Hailey smiled smugly as she walked past Amber. "Mauville it is then," she said brightly.

Amber stood for a moment looking at her map. It really did look like there was no other possible route. "Mauville it is," she repeated glumly as she reluctantly followed the girl up the path.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"So, this is the trick house?" asked Amber. "I've got to say, it's not exactly impressive."

The building they were standing in front of looked about as rundown as the Seashore House, complete with a faded sign and boarded up windows.

"Yeah, it isn't much too look at," Hailey admitted, "but it's nicer inside." She placed a hand against the door and swung it open.

"Wait, we're going in?!" Amber exclaimed as she followed the girl through the door.

"Well, it'll be getting dark out soon. We need some place to stay."

The interior was admittedly more attractive than Amber had expected, although it was very simple. A single, bare lightbulb was lighting up the room, apparently still turned on from when Hailey had first found the building. A table sat in the middle of the room with four stools placed around it. On top of the table was an empty sack, which had presumably contained the sandwiches Hailey had in her bag. Towards the back of the room was a wardrobe and a filing cabinet, each with their drawers and doors left slightly open. Apparently neither Hailey nor the boy she had been with were very good at putting things back the way they were.

Amber recalled Emolga to its pokéball and walked over to the wardrobe and opened it further. Unsurprisingly, several items of clothing of varying sizes were hung up, along with a couple of empty coat hangers. She suspected that whatever had been hanging from them was now stuffed into either Hailey or the boy's backpack.

"Feel free to take anything you want," Hailey said as she sat down at the table.

"Thanks…" Amber replied distractedly.

Most of the clothes looked like they were either slightly too big or far too small for her; it was possible that they had been placed their specifically for Hailey and the boy. Still, she found a dark, bulky sweater towards the back of the cupboard which she proceeded to pull down from the hanger. After all, she wasn't sure what Hoenn's weather was like, and she didn't want to get stuck in some snowy mountain wearing nothing but her light jumper. Besides, the building was rather draughty, and if she was going to get any sleep, she needed something comfortable to wear.

"So, where did you wake up?" Amber asked as she pulled the sweater over her head.

"Just up the road from here, next to some kind of river. The bracelet said it was Route 103." She lifted her bag onto the table and started rummaging through it for food.

"I wonder why they separated all of us…" Amber said, more to herself than to Hailey.

"Who knows? Maybe they just wanted to freak us out a bit."

"Maybe…" She pulled open one of the cabinet's drawers and found nothing but loose bits of paper.

"There's nothing interesting in there," Hailey said. "Me and Nathaniel flicked through all of it. Nothing but weird notes about puzzles and mazes and stuff."

Amber had to admit that there didn't seem to be anything relevant, but she couldn't help but flick through them anyway. At the bottom of the papers was what appeared to be some kind of laminated booklet. She pulled it out from underneath the notes and flicked through it.

"It's a calendar…" she said absentmindedly.

"Uh, yeah. We found that too. Like I said, nothing important."

Amber reached the end of the calendar, furrowed her brow, then flicked through it again. "This is a calendar for 2002. That's ten years ago."

"Well, maybe the guy didn't like keeping his calendars then. I'm sure it's not a big deal…"

"No, I don't think that's it. This is the only calendar in that drawer, which means that there's ten years' worth of calendars he hasn't kept. And look at this." She flicked through to November and dropped it on the table. "He's ticked off every day of every month until right here, the 21st, and then he just stopped. Doesn't that seem weird to you?"

"I guess, but still… Maybe he died on the 20th, and no-one bothered to clear out the house."

"No-one bothered to clear it out in ten years?"

"Maybe? I know it doesn't seem likely, but I think you're looking way too much into this."

"Hmm, maybe you're right," Amber said, but she stuffed the calendar into her backpack, just in case.

"So, why do you think we're here?" Hailey asked as Amber sat down opposite her.

Amber sighed. "Why would I know? I have no idea why any of this is happening. I mean, what could possibly make anyone want to kidnap a bunch of trainers and force them to take part in a giant tournament? I don't think I could ever understand the motivation behind that."

Hailey smiled. "That's not what I meant. I mean, why do you think _we're_ here."

"You mean us specifically? Again, why would I know?"

"Well, there's got to be some kind of link between us, right?"

"We're both trainers, aren't we? Isn't that enough of a link?"

"Maybe, but I don't think that can be all it is… It's not like they could kidnap every trainer in the world, right?"

"Hmm, you've got a point." Amber paused to think for a moment. What Hailey was saying did make sense. If there were too many trainers in the tournament, the gyms and centres would become overcrowded and the whole thing would most likely come to a halt. Whoever was behind everything must have had some kind of way of narrowing down the amount of competitors.

Then again, what even counted as a trainer? Amber herself hadn't even been on a journey for almost six months, and yet she still counted. What was the cut-off point? A year? Ten years? Or were there fifty-year-olds wandering about the region as well?

"I suppose it won't be possible to tell until we meet some more people," Amber said eventually.

"No? Because I was kind of hoping it'd give us an excuse to get to know each other a bit better."

Ah, so that was what the girl was doing, Amber realised. She didn't actually care about working anything out, she just wanted to know if they had anything in common. Well, it wasn't like they were going anywhere any time soon.

"Fine, ask me anything you want," Amber said grudgingly. "Just try not make it too personal."

"Okay, let's see… How many badges do you have?"

"None. I haven't actually been on a journey in half a year." she stated her answer flatly.

"Huh, interesting…" she paused for a moment, seemingly deep in thought. "I myself have five. What's the most amount of badges you've ever collected on a single journey?"

"Eight, and I've challenged Unova's Elite Four," she said just as plainly as her last answer.

"Very impressive," Hailey said with admiration. "I managed to get seven on my last go, but I had to go home before I could get the last one. How many leagues have you taken part in, and which ones?"

"Only two – Unova and Kalos. I have family up there, so I alternate between the two."

"Ah, there's a link then. I've only been to two as well – Sinnoh and Johto. Although I don't really see how that could be a link… Still, anything's possible, I suppose."

Amber yawned. Suddenly she realised how tired she felt. It had been a very stressful day, and most of it was spent walking. "Any more questions? I'd like to get to sleep soon."

"Okay, just one more then." Hailey paused again, racking her brain for any other possible links. Suddenly, her face lit up, but she shook her head and went back to thinking.

"It looked like you thought of something there," Amber pointed out.

"Sort of, but… I doubt it's the link, and it's kind of personal, so…"

"Look, just ask it, because I'm exhausted and I'd quite like it if you stopped talking soon."

Hailey looked hurt for a moment, but she quickly shook it off. "Okay, if you're sure…" she said nervously. "Have you… ever lost someone? During a journey, I mean."

Amber gasped. Could that be it? Was that the link? Was the whole tournament some kind of twisted punishment, specifically built to torture its participants? Her head spun, and suddenly she found it hard to breathe.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you," Hailey said apologetically. "But… do you think that could be it?"

Amber paused for a moment and closed her eyes, trying to calm her beating heart down. "Maybe," she said eventually, before standing up and dropping her backpack onto the middle of the floor. "Could you turn the light out? I'm going to sleep now. Good night." She lay down and placed her head on top of her bag.

"Um, good night," Hailey said as she walked over to the light switch and flicked it off.

Amber didn't go to sleep. Instead her eyes remained wide open for the whole night, tears wetting her cheeks. She wasn't sure if it was the shock of Hailey's question or the fact that she was trying to sleep on a cold, hard floor a million miles from her home that was preventing her from sleeping, but either way, she wanted nothing more than to be in her own bed.

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

After several hours of trying to get to sleep, a sliver of light creeping in through the gaps in the window boards and the door told Amber that it was time to give up. She stood up and wiped the tears from her eyelashes, then searched through her bag for some kind of decent breakfast. She managed to find a jam roll, slightly crushed from being used as a cushion but still edible. She sat at the table eating the roll before turning her attention towards Hailey.

She was sleeping on the floor on the other side of the room, also using her backpack as a cushion and a crumpled jumper as a blanket. Amber crouched down next to her, wondering if she should wake her. It was probably still early in the morning, and Hailey looked so peaceful that she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead, Amber quietly creeped out the house.

Now that it was day time, the route looked rather pleasant. There were bird pokémon flying around overhead, chirping an odd, tuneless song. Looking around, she could see the area where Hailey must have woken up. Bushes of berries lined the path leading towards the river the girl had mentioned. Amber couldn't help but smile. There certainly were worse places to be trapped in.

"Amber?" Hailey said tiredly as she stepped outside. "I thought you'd left without me."

"Why would I do that? We're heading to Mauville together, aren't we?"

"Well, yeah, but I thought I'd maybe hurt you last night. You seemed pretty upset."

Amber sighed. "Yeah, sorry about that. You just caught me off guard. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." _Yet,_ she added mentally. Even if she was sticking with Hailey until Mauville, she wasn't too fond of the idea of travelling around with someone who was participating in the tournament. After they got to Mauville, she was leaving to try and find her own way off the damn region.

"Okay, if you say so," Hailey said with a smile, instantly returning to her usual, cheerful self. "Now, come on, let's go!" She hurried off down the path.

Amber quickly followed after her, but they both stopped after only a few moments.

"Right, this path looks pretty long," Hailey said, examining the route on her bracelet, "You should probably get Emolga out, it might be dangerous."

"Wait, is there no other way? I'd rather not get involved in any battles." Amber looked around, searching for some kind of alternate path. "What about up there?" She pointed upwards at the modern looking bridge that passed over the whole route.

"That's the cycling road. You can't go up there without a bike."

"Hailey, we're in a region filled with nothing but trainers. Who's going to stop me?"

Hailey thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Fair point. Try it if you want, but I'm taking this path."

Amber started to walk towards the building at the start of the cycling road. "See you in Mauville," she called out behind her.

"See you," Hailey called back before running up the lower route.

Amber stepped inside the building and for once was happy to see that it was abandoned. The desk that ran the length of the room had no-one standing behind it to tell her off for what she was about to do. However, the moment she walked out the other side she began to regret her decision.

The slope that led onto the road may have looked easy if she had been gathered up speed on a bike, but on foot it looked rather steep. Still, she grabbed onto the railing at the side and struggled upwards. It was tiring, but she managed to eventually reach the top.

She wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead and started to walk along the winding path, admiring the tricky twists and turns that had been implemented to challenge cyclers but were no problem for pedestrians. Still, the route was long and she found herself out of breath before she was half way across.

_Man, I really need to get some more exercise,_ she thought to herself as she leaned against the railing and tried to catch her breath. Peering over the edge she could see Hailey off in the distance, battling with some unfamiliar pokémon. Amber wasn't exactly keen on observing her fight, so she turned her attention towards the sky.

She had to admit, it was a nice day. The sky was a brighter blue than she had ever seen in Unova, and there wasn't a single grey cloud in sight. She stood admiring the weather for a moment until she saw it. A huge shape was shooting across the sky and seemingly heading straight towards her.

She turned and ran as fast as she could up the path, but the shape was too fast and it quickly crashed onto the road in front of her. Up close, it looked like some kind of large dragon type. It beat its red wings ferociously and let out a roar so powerful it almost knocked Amber off her feet.

"Salamence, that's enough," a voice called out from on top of the creature. "We don't want to hurt her, even if she has broken the rules." A figure dropped gracefully off of the pokemon's back and strolled towards Amber.

The person was a woman, although her hood was pulled down so low that it covered her eyes, making it impossible to work out her identity. Her outfit was the same bright orange that the D that had accompanied the bracelet's voice had been, and a large, blue A was emblazoned on the chest.

"Wh-who are you," Amber said cautiously, her hand instinctively reaching for Emolga's pokémon.

"Relax, I'm just here to give you a quick telling off," the woman assured her. "I guess you could say I'm a moderator. We're here to make sure all the competitors are sticking to the rules and not getting into too much trouble. Are you aware that this is the cycling road?"

"Yes," Amber admitted through gritted teeth. An empty region and she had still managed to get into trouble. _Great._

"Well, since you don't have a bike, you shouldn't be here. If you'd return to the lower route, please, then we won't have a problem."

There was a part of Amber that wanted to listen, to go back and avoid any trouble, but what use would that be? She was planning on escaping, and that would certainly be against these people's 'rules' so she figured she might as well push her luck. "What would happen if I refuse?"

Something shifted behind the woman's hood as her polite smile vanished. Amber realised that she was frowning. "Then we'd have a problem."

"Well then," Amber said, knowing full well what was about to happen. "I guess we have a problem."

"Yes, I guess we do," the woman said simply. "Salamence, hurt her."

The creature opened its mouth and shot a stream of flames towards Amber, but she ducked under the attack and dashed towards the edge of the bridge. She clambered up onto the railing, suddenly regretting her plan when she saw how far down the water looked. She knew it was too late to change her mind however, so she took a deep breath and dived off the bridge.

When she hit the water it suddenly felt very hard, almost as if she had dived onto a wet, cold pavement, but she figured she wasn't actually hurt too badly. She struggled for a moment to resurface, then looked up at the bridge. The woman was looking over the edge, frowning at her. Amber thought for a moment that she was going to come down after her, but she eventually walked away and climbed onto the back of her salamence. Amber sighed in relief as the creature flew over her head and out of sight, although she had a feeling that it wasn't the last she'd be seeing of the moderators.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Amber struggled to pull herself out of the water, dragging her aching body onto the grassy path. Everything hurt, and her clothes weighed down heavily on her. She wanted nothing more than to peel the soaking jumper off, but she didn't have the energy to do it. Instead, she let herself flop onto the ground, too exhausted to move another muscle.

She was no doctor, but nothing felt broken. There would be bruises, certainly, but nothing that would slow her down too much. For now, though, all she wanted to do was rest.

Her eyes drifted shut and, just for a moment, she let herself bask in the warm sun. She could almost pretend she was back in Unova, relaxing in the cool summer breeze. Maybe if she lay there long enough, she could pretend she surrounded by friendly pokémon, with a half-finished book resting beside her...

"Hey, are you okay?"

Her eyes jolted open. There weren't any pokémon, nor were there any books, but rather a person, staring down at her from above.

"Do you need a hand?" he asked, genuine concern in his voice. His eyes looked worried too, although it was hard to tell behind his thick glasses. He held a hand out to her, which she promptly ignored.

"I'm good," she said, pulling herself to her feet. Her legs wobbled a bit and he made like he was going to catch her, but she managed to regain her balance without assistance.

"Are you sure? I could take you into town if you want."

"No thanks," she said, rather fed up with the stranger already. Who did he think he was, offering her his help? Going by the lack of a ridiculous orange outfit, the man must have been another trainer, which meant they were supposed to be enemies. Why was everyone so intent on being nice to her? "I can manage just fine by myself."

She took a step forwards and her ankle twisted with a sharp jolt of pain. She would have fallen, but the stranger grabbed her shoulder just in time.

"Maybe you should take it easy," he said, easing her back to her feet. "I saw what you did back there. Falling from a height like that is bound to have done a number on you."

"I'm fine," she insisted. The stranger had a point, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing it.

He let go of her shoulder and took a step back, perhaps studying her for any serious injuries. As his eyes travelled her body, she examined him as well, still curious as to why he had been so quick to help her.

He was tall, much taller than her, and she had to tilt her neck to get a proper look at his face. His hair was a shaggy blonde mop, just about reaching the frame of his glasses, and his eyes were a deep sea green. He was attractive, in an odd-sort of way - in need of a good haircut, maybe, as well as a decent meal or too, going by how his shirt was hanging off him, but he wasn't exactly hard on the eyes.

"I'm Nathaniel, by the way," he said once he was done studying her, apparently satisfied that she didn't require an emergency ambulance. He stretched out his hand and added, "Nathaniel Moon."

"Amber," she said flatly, once again ignoring his outstretched hand. "And I take it you're the guy Hailey was talking about?"

"Ah, so she did manage to find someone else! I was worried that she was just wasting her time. I mean, what were the chances of someone waking up on the other side of Slateport? You wouldn't happen to know where she is, would you?"

"She's down that way," Amber said, gesturing towards the route with her head. "Now, if you'll excuse me." She brushed past Nathaniel, determined to keep going. Her legs were still a bit wobbly, but the pain was already beginning to fade.

"Don't you want to wait for her?" he asked

"No thanks," she called back. The last thing she needed was to make another acquaintance. From now on, she was travelling alone. Besides, if what Hailey had said was true, the guy was sticking to the rules as well, which made him a totally unsuitable travel partner, regardless of how attractive he might have been.

He didn't call out to her again, perhaps realising that she was a lost cause. And so, she made the short walk to the next town in silence, just the way she liked it.

Mauville City wasn't really a city at all - it was more of a small town, far smaller than Slateport, and even from the entrance she could tell that there was nothing there that was going to be much help to her. A couple of houses were up ahead, along with the local pokémart, and to her left was a fairly large building with a sign that read "Mauville City Game Corner". There were a couple of trainers dotted around the place, possibly looking for the gym or trying to find someone worth challenging.

It wasn't the kind of place she wanted to spend much time in. She doubted anyone would try jumping her out in public, but apparently there were plenty of people who wanted to make friends for some reason. She wasn't sure if she could be bothered dealing with another hyper-active trainer.

No, she wanted to get in and out as fast as possible. According to the map on her bracelet, there was a path to the north that led to some pretty interesting looking places. Maybe there was something up that way that could be of use to her. She doubted it, but she had to start somewhere.

First of all, though, she pulled the jumper off and threw it to the ground. There was still a cool-morning breeze, and it bit at her drenched clothes. Hopefully she would dry off as she walked.

As she headed up the path, she allowed herself a passing glance at the gym. It didn't look much different than the ones back in Unova, right down to the young trainers hanging around it, bragging about their badges. Some things were the same on any journey, she supposed, even ones that took place in a mysteriously abandoned region.

The building brought back a strange feeling of nostalgia, but she quickly shook it off. She'd made up her mind. No battling, not again. She tore her gaze away and focussed on the road ahead.

"Ah, so you're finally awake," a voice called out, cutting through the silence.

Amber froze, although she wasn't sure why. There was no way the voice was aimed at her, after all. Still, she turned her attention towards it, and was surprised to see someone staring directly at her.

The woman was a good bit older than herself, maybe in her late teens. She sat outside what looked like a small café, her legs casually kicked up on the table, right next to a cup of something steaming hot. Her skin was delicate and olive-toned, and her hair was sleek and black. She was grinning from ear to ear, but something about her eyes made the smile seem less than genuine.

Two things were clear. One, Amber had never seen the woman before in her life. And two, the woman was looking at her like they'd known each other for years.

"Come on, take a seat," the woman said, pulling out a chair for her.

Amber did as she said. Normally she wouldn't have, but she was trying to work out how a perfect stranger could talk to her like an old friend. Was she perhaps mixing her up for someone else? It seemed unlikely.

That's when it hit her. "You're the person who woke up next to me."

"Bingo," the woman said. "Sorry for running off without you, but you can understand my hesitation to stick around. For all I knew, you could have attacked me the moment you opened your eyes."

Something about the woman's distrust put a smile on Amber's face. It was a refreshing change from Hailey and Nathaniel's ridiculous naivety. Still, she didn't want to stick around for too long. There was work to be done. She made to get up, but the woman put a hand on her shoulder and forced her back down.

"Ah-ah-ah," she said, wagging a finger. "We're not finished talking yet. After all, I've been waiting for someone like you to show up."

"Someone like me?" Amber repeated, confused. "Didn't you just say that you were scared I was going to attack you?"

"That was then, and this is now," the woman said. "After all, you didn't attack those kids, did you?" She gestured to the two boys standing outside the gym. "Frankly they don't seem like much of a threat, so my guess is that you're not in the business of... removing your opponents to get ahead in this little game."

Amber leaned back in her seat. Whoever this woman was, she was doing some serious mental gymnastics. But despite that, Amber couldn't deny that she was right. "Okay, point taken. I'm not planning on fighting you."

The woman's grin grew wider. "Of course you're not. In fact, I'd go as far to say that you're not planning on fighting much at all, are you?"

That caught Amber's attention. "What do you-?"

"I saw you," the woman said. "You were going to walk right past that gym. Now, I've been sitting here all day, and I haven't seen a single person do that. Sure, a couple of people stood there for a bit before going off to train more, but not a single one paid as little attention to it as you. So do you know what I think?"

Amber shook her head.

"I think you're like me. I think you're going to try to find another way out, rather than stick to the rules of this stupid tournament. Am I right?"

She considered denying it, but there was no point. This woman was good. "Yeah, actually. That was pretty impressive."

The woman shrugged. "Like I said, I've been waiting for someone like you. Someone to help me break the rules and take down whoever's in charge of this place. What do you say?"

"No thanks," Amber said, without even a seconds hesitation. "I work better alone."

"Well, that's a stupid idea. You don't stand a chance of getting out of here without help. I mean, without me, you won't even know where to catch the boat."

"Boat? What boat?"

The woman rolled her eyes. "The boat that's going to take us across the water. Have you really not figured this out yet?"

Again, Amber shook her head.

"Alright, listen up." The woman took a long sip from her coffee, perhaps to give her time to prepare her next shocking deduction. "I'm sure you haven't noticed, given how unobservant you are, but see that pokémart over there? It sells just about everything. I'm talking potions, antidotes, revives, everything. Everything, that is, except pokéballs. What does that tell you?"

"No pokéballs?" Thinking about it, she hadn't seen any in the Slateport shops either. What did that mean? The only answer she could come up with was, "They don't want us catching pokémon?"

"Exactly," the woman said. "Which would mean...?"

Amber tried to follow her line of logic. "If we can't catch any extra pokémon, it'd mean that... that any trainer without a water or flying type wouldn't be able to cross the sea. And that's why you think they're going to provide boats for us?"

The woman nodded. "It's the only thing that makes sense."

"I don't know," Amber said. "That seems like kind of a leap."

"But without boats, it'd be impossible to access half the region. I mean, look here." She stretched out her arm, giving Amber a clear view of the map on her bracelet. "Take Dewford Town, for example. It's a tiny little island, but according to this map it has a gym on it."

"So without a boat, it'd be impossible to get there?"

"Right. But you don't have to take my word for it. You'll see for yourself soon enough."

"You're so confident that I'm coming with you."

"Well, you kind of have to. I mean, I'm the one with the plan."

"You know, you could just tell me what your plan is."

The woman seemed to consider it for a moment before scrunching up her face and saying, "Nah. Sorry, but I need someone else for it, and I can't risk you running off the moment you hear it. If you want in, you're going to have to trust me. So, what do you say?"

Amber thought about it. If the woman was right and there really were boats, it could be her best hope of getting off the region and heading back home. As much as she wanted to work alone, that was just too good a chance to pass up. "I'm in."

"Glad to hear it," the woman said, her grin stretching even further. "The name's Francesca, by the way. Francesca Moretti."

"Amber Sky," Amber said. "Now, where exactly are we going to catch this boat?"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Nathaniel walked down the grassy path, hands shoved deep into his pockets. It wasn't exactly cold - it never was in Hoenn, unless you were stupid enough to go exploring in the Shoal Cave - but it was rather fresh, and his light shirt was offering absolutely no protection.

It was hard to tell, but he guessed it was probably early Autumn. Had it been early Autumn before he'd fallen asleep? He couldn't remember. The last few weeks were hazy at best. He could recall the important bits - hanging out at the beach with the guys, his sister finally returning home from her journey, visiting his grandpa at the old folk's home - but the specifics kept slipping away. What had the weather been like? What had he had for dinner? How had he ended up in the trick house?

That last one was the strangest of all. Surely he'd have recalled travelling across the map. Had someone carried him there? Would he have really slept through that? Then again, he'd apparently slept through the entire region up and leaving, so maybe he was focussing on the wrong things.

He wondered if his family were okay. The island they lived on wasn't technically part of Hoenn, so maybe this whole thing had missed them. He'd have to find a way to go and check. Just as soon as he'd checked up on her, first.

Speak of the devil, he thought to himself as the young girl ran into view. "How's the training going?"

She stopped in her tracks, pulling herself out of her own little world. "Oh, hey Nate," she said, continuing up the path to meet him. She was followed by a small pokémon that he didn't recognise. "Not too well, to be honest. The pokémon here are really weird..."

"Huh, really?"

"Yeah." She tapped her hip and the pokémon darted up her leg, climbed her body and perched itself on her shoulder, resting its hand-like tail on her head. "Me and Aipom kept trying to battle them, but they just ignored us."

"Huh, that's odd," Nathaniel said. He didn't recall having any trouble with the pokémon on that particular route before. "Maybe it's something to do with this tournament? Whatever's going on here, it must have disturbed the natural order of things."

"Maybe..." she said, although she didn't sound too convinced. She shook it off and gave him a bright smile. "Hey, you didn't happen to see a girl up that way, did you? Red hair, kind of grumpy, probably wearing that really ugly jumper that we found in the trick house?"

"You mean that Amber girl?" He grimaced at the thought of her. He understood that the situation was stressful and frightening, and it was probably unreasonable of him to expect everyone to handle it with a positive attitude, but there was no reason for her to be quite so rude. "Yeah, I bumped into her. She headed to Mauville by herself. Apparently she was in some kind of rush."

"Oh." Her smile fell ever so slightly. "I though she was going to wait for me," she said, failing to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

"Honestly, I wouldn't worry about her," he said. "There are plenty of other trainers for us to travel with. Heck, Mauville's full of them."

"Really?"

He nodded. "Now come on, let's get out of here. If these pokémon refuse to battle you, then I'll just have to help you prepare for the gym myself."

"Okay," she said, beaming. "But you'd better not go easy on me."

* * *

Francesca led Amber away from the town and back towards Route 110. "Aren't we just going back the way we came?" Amber asked.

Francesca rolled her eyes. She had hoped that the girl would just keep quiet and do as she was told, but it seemed like that was too much to ask. Still, despite the attitude, she was by far the best choice of partner out of everyone else Francesca had seen so far.

She didn't understand it. Why were these idiots so willing to play along? It wasn't like the bracelet-person had mentioned any kind of punishment for rule-breaking. Surely disobeying a little was worth a shot?

But no. Most people seemed content with battling the gyms in the vain hope of becoming the one, single person allowed to go home at the end. Maybe she shouldn't have been surprised. In her experience, fear tended to rule those with... weaker minds.

"Yes, that is what we're doing," she said, struggling to keep the annoyance out of her voice. Experience told her that getting snappy with your subordinates rarely made matters easier. "Well done for noticing. Just trust me and we'll be there in no time."

She stopped just before she reached the tall grass, suddenly aware that the girl was no longer with her. She took a deep breath, forced a smile and turned around. "Is there a problem?"

Amber was standing some distance behind her, her arms folded and her face in an almost adorable pout. "I'd... rather not go that way."

"What, are you scared that a pokémon's going to bite at your ankles or something?"

The girl's eyes shifted. "Something like that."

"Honestly, some pokémon trainer you are," she said. "And here I thought your refusal to take part in this whole tournament was some form of protest."

"Look, can we not get into all this right now? The cycling road's shorter anyway."

"Yeah," she said, "and then a moderator will show up with some giant pokémon that we can't hope to defeat and we'll be forced to dive into the freezing cold water." She couldn't resist smiling at the girl's shocked expression. "I'm not blind, kid. Just about the entire town saw you. You really ate shit back there."

"Well I'm still not going into the grass," she said, and to her credit, she actually started to walk towards the cycling road. "I'll meet up with you on the other side."

"Alright, alright," Francesca called out to her. "I don't normally give away my discoveries for free, but you're not much use to me dead, so listen up."

The girl stopped, but she didn't turn back. "Go on."

"The pokémon in that route are... strange. For one reason or another, they're almost entirely docile. Trust me, I made my way up here without a single battle."

"Huh." Finally the girl turned around and walked back towards her. "Why's that?"

"I... have my theories," she said. "But, like I said, I don't give these things away for free, and I certainly don't give them to crappy trainers who are scared of pokémon, so for now you're just going to have to trust me."

To her relief, the girl finally uncrossed her arms and let her guard down. "Alright, fine. But if we get attacked, don't count on me to save you."

"Kid," Francesca said with a playful wink, "I'm not the one that's going to need saving. Now, come on, we don't have all day."

The two of them headed down the path together, Francesca in front and Amber nervously hanging behind. It was weird seeing her like that. She'd seemed so daring and in control when she'd jumped off that bridge, and the way she'd marched into town with raw determination had been a sight to behold. Francesca had almost let herself get her hopes up - a confident trainer who wasn't afraid to break the rules to get what she wanted? It had seemed too good to be true.

And apparently it was. Now the girl was walking so slowly, carefully deliberating each and every step, that Francesca had to pace herself so as not to get too far ahead. "Nothing's going to attack you," she called out, rather fed up with her partner. She's still the best choice you had, she told herself, but it didn't do much to comfort her.

"Well sorry," the girl called back. She sounded frustratingly far away. "It's just... been a while since I've done this."

"Done what?" Francesca snapped, spinning on her heel. "Walked? Sorry, sorry." She took a couple of deep breaths. Getting angry wasn't going to help anyone. "Can we just keep moving? I'd like to reach the boat before sundown."

"Fine," the girl said flatly. She sounded annoyed, but she started walking again, and now she was moving at least a little bit quicker.

They kept going until Francesca noticed two other trainers, heading up the path towards them. She recognised the guy - he'd tried to start up a conversation with her earlier, but she'd quickly shut him down. If she remembered correctly, he'd already challenged the Mauville gym. She didn't know the kid next to him, but she was no doubt just as annoyingly friendly.

"Hey Amber," the kid said cheerfully.

Francesca almost stopped, fully expecting to have to converse with those two morons, but Amber just kept walking.

"Amber..." the kid said as she was totally brushed off. The guy muttered something to her and the two of them continued on up the path.

"Did you know those two?" Francesca asked once they were out of ear-shot.

Amber shrugged. "Not well."

"Okay, I'm beginning to see why you prefer to work alone..."

"Oh please, do tell me," she said. "I'd love to hear more of your opinions."

"You repel people," Francesca said simply. "But if you keep telling yourself that you do it on purpose, you don't have to accept the bitter truth."

"You're one to talk."

"Ah, but there's a difference," she said. "I actually do repel people on purpose. I mean, why would I want to make friends with people as dull as them? Hell, the only reason we're together right now is because I need you. If I could do this by myself, I would."

"And if you would tell me your plan," Amber said, "then I would figure out a way to carry it out by myself. A way that doesn't involve walking into tall grass, by the way."

They continued the rest of the walk in silence. As Francesca had said, not a single pokémon paid them any attention. Most of them just wandered through the grass, minding their own business. It was as if the two trainers were totally invisible to them, so much so that when Francesca accidentally kicked a zigzagoon with her boot the stupid thing didn't so much as budge. Even she had to admit that it was oddly disconcerting, seeing the usually vibrant creatures so lifeless, and she couldn't really blame Amber for acting so nervous.

The girl did ease up a little bit once they were out of the grass, but she didn't seem any more willing to restart the conversation. Maybe they were just destined not to be friends or something. In any case, that was totally fine by her. If anything, it actually made Amber one of the better partners she'd had.

They walked right through Slateport, the two of them picking up their pace just a little. There was admittedly something eery about the empty town, but that's not why Francesca was hurrying. She glanced to her bracelet, checking the time displayed in the corner.

10:52. She didn't know if it was the right time, but it seemed plausible. It didn't really matter either way, though: the point was that the region was operating based on that time, which meant if she was correct, they didn't have much longer.

"We'd better hurry," she said, shifting to a light jog.

Amber didn't complain, although Francesca suspected that it was just because she wanted out the town as fast as possible. The two of them raced through the streets, only slowing back down when they hit the soft sand of the beach.

Francesca led the way to the far right of the beach, praying that her assumptions were correct. There, stuck in the sand just before the shore, was the same wooden sign she had spotted the previous morning. In large, white writing, it read, "BOAT DUE EVERY HOUR".

"This is what you based all those deductions on?" Amber asked.

"Yeah," she said. "See how the sign isn't faded or rotting? That means it's relatively new. Or, at the very least, newer than that sign by the Seashore House."

"So you think that, just because this sign isn't falling apart, it must mean that someone put it here for the tournament?" the girl asked, sounding wholly unimpressed. "And it's not possible that someone just replaced it a few days ago before this whole thing started, and this is all just a coincidence and you've completely wasted our time?"

"I mean, when you put it that way, I suppose it's possible." She hadn't expected the girl to understand. People rarely accepted these kind of things without some kind of proof. And, speaking of proof... "But isn't it far more likely that the sign is related to that boat coming towards us right now," she said, pointing over the sea.

She turned to Amber, expecting her to look at least a little bit impressed. Instead, though, the girl gave her another pout. "You got lucky," she said through gritted teeth.

"Be that as it may," Francesca said, "I think it's time that we finally go over the plan. Now, the boat is bound to be secured, so I'm going to need you to distract the guards while I do my thing."

She grinned as she faced the boat. Finally, a shot at freedom, or at least a chance to better understand what was going on. There was just one step left.

"And what exactly is it you'll be doing?" Amber asked.

Francesca paused, wondering if she should answer that question. Surely the girl wouldn't back down now, not when they were so close to victory. After a moment's consideration, she turned to her and said, as off-handedly as possible, "I'm going to steal that boat."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

"Ah, good morning," the man on the boat said as he leaned over the side. He was dressed in the same orange clothes as the previous moderator, the hood once again pulled down so low that it concealed half his face. "What can I do for you?"

"Um..." Amber glanced off to her side, looking for any sign of Francesca. No such luck. The woman had disappeared just as the boat had pulled in, without so much as a word of advice or encouragement. Apparently she was really putting that whole "just trust me" thing to the test. Still, it wasn't like Amber had much of a choice, and stealing a boat probably was the quickest way of getting to freedom. "I was just wondering where you were going?"

"Well, technically we're heading for Dewford Town," he said, "but this is just a trial run at the moment. We won't be taking any passengers till this evening."

"Oh," she said, only because she wasn't sure how to continue the conversation. It was times like these that she wished her social skills were just a little better.

"If it's a gym you're looking for, Mauville's probably your best bet. And if you've already got that badge, you've got Lavaridge Town to the north and Rustboro City to the west."

"Thanks," Amber said, forcing a smile. She realised that it'd be suspicious to hang around any longer, and so she was just about to leave when the man started to sway. Before she could react, his eyes drooped over, his legs buckled and he fell to his knees.

"Well, that wasn't the most engaging conversation I've ever seen, but I suppose it did the job," Francesca said. She was standing just behind the man's unconscious body, a tall, winged pokémon by her side. "Now get your ass up here, the boat'll be leaving any minute."

"And how exactly do you expect me to do that?" Amber asked. The boat wasn't particularly large, but it was still too big for her to just climb up onto. Come to think of it, she wasn't entirely sure how Francesca had managed it.

"Ah, fair point," she said. "Xatu, you know what to do."

The pokémon gave a small nod to its trainer and, before Amber knew what was happening, she was rising off the ground to meet Francesca. With a jolt, she was tugged towards the boat and, once she was above the deck, the pokémon let her go. She landed painfully on her backside, no doubt creating yet another fresh bruise.

"Ow," she said, picking herself up off the ground. "Was that really the easiest way to do that?"

Francesca shrugged. "Probably. I mean, I'm sure there are stairs somewhere, but I didn't want to alert the other guards. Speaking of..."

Two other moderators appeared from around the corner. Even from behind their hoods, their fury was clear as day. Their hands snapped to the pokéballs on their belts; apparently negotiation was off the table.

"Hypnosis," Francesca said, no trace of fear in her voice. Within an instant, the two moderators had gone from running to collapsing to the ground. "Well, that was pathetic. Xatu, grab the first one. Amber, me and you will take the other two."

Together, they heaved the bodies across the deck. Amber seemed to be the only one struggling to move hers - Francesca had taken the only other woman, who looked considerably shorter and lighter than the two men. She found the easiest way was to wrap her arms around the guy's legs and drag him; she only hoped it wouldn't wake him up.

Inside the boat they found a supply closet, where they stuffed the three moderators in as carefully as they could. Amber wasn't sure how she felt about the whole thing, and she was less sure of how she felt about obeying Francesca's orders, but the idea of freedom was so tantalisingly close that she didn't dare complain.

"Right," Francesca said, looking over the unconscious bodies with an odd sort of pride. "That should be them out for a while. Still, best to be on the safe side. You got anything we can tie them up with?"

"No, I don't think so," Amber said. "Maybe there's rope on the boat?"

"Hmm, maybe," she said. "But we don't have time to go looking. We need them to stay asleep until we get out of this region. Ah well, too bad. You'll just have to watch over them."

"Me?" Amber asked.

"Yeah, you. I'd ask Xatu to do it, but I figure you're more likely to obey my orders than he is. Now, close that door, stand in front of it and if they weak up and try to get free, attack them with whatever pokémon you have."

Amber opened her mouth to protest, but Francesca was already walking down the hall and she realised arguing would ultimately be totally pointless. "Wait!" she said instead. "Do you even know how to sail this thing?"

"Oh, Amber," Francesca said without even stopping. "There's a lot of things I know how to do." With that, she turned a corner and was gone from sight.

Amber stood by the supply closet door, her back pressed against it to keep it shut. Not that it would have done any good if the three moderators woke up. No, if they broke free, she'd have no choice but to have Emolga shock them. With a bit of luck, she could paralyse them before they could reach their pokéballs. If not, she'd have to hope Francesca would fight them off. The thought wasn't exactly reassuring.

And there was something else that wasn't sitting right with her. It niggled uncomfortably at the back of her brain, like an itch she couldn't scratch. It was the way Francesca had implied that she'd do anything she was told, like a well-trained pokémon. She'd been okay with sticking to the woman's plans until then - they'd gotten them this far, after all - but that was pretty much the last straw. She should have known better. You let someone boss you around a little and they'd soon take full control. It was a lesson she'd learned long ago, and she cursed herself for forgetting it so easily.

If only she could have found some way of keeping those three imprisoned without having to watch over them, or something she could use to hold the door shut. Something like a chair. Much like the one she could see through the window of the room opposite her.

She pressed her ear to the supply closet door and, satisfied that she could still hear three distinct snoring patterns, hurried through to the other room. She grabbed the chair, propped it up against the handle and smiled to herself. That should hold them for a while. At the very least, if they woke up she would hear the chair rattling against the door.

She headed back outside into the cool morning breeze. The boat still wasn't moving - perhaps she had been right, and Francesca didn't actually know how to sail it. But despite all that, and despite the fact that they were still technically trapped there, and despite the thought of her family sitting at home worrying about her, she had to admit that the ocean looked truly beautiful.

The water was almost perfectly still, with only the gentle winds causing the occasional disturbance. She could smell the salt of the sea, hear the squeals of the nearby bird pokémon, see the harsh sunlight gleaming against the waves. It was almost like any other day at the beach.

And then Francesca went and ruined it by turning on the engine. The boat rumbled, the wooden boards vibrating under Amber's feet, and in an instant they were off.

Maybe Amber hadn't been right to assume Francesca couldn't sail, but she wouldn't have been wrong to say that she couldn't sail well. Despite the calm seas, the boat rocked from side to side as it moved, and Amber found herself grasping onto the railing for dear life. Something rose up in her throat, and she had to fight to keep it down.

It was far from a relaxing journey. The boat constantly made noises Amber was sure it wasn't supposed to, grinding and scraping against God knew what. At one point there was a horrendous scrape and she half expected water to flood the boat, pulling them down to their deaths. But somehow they carried on forwards, continuing towards their goal.

How long they travelled for, Amber couldn't say. She was too busy trying not to vomit to count the minutes. Either way, it felt like far too long. She'd have ran back inside to find a toilet, only she wasn't sure she'd make it without being sent sprawling across the deck.

The most she could say was that, after some indeterminate amount of time, they reached the edge of the region. That's not to say that it was a comforting or relieving sight, for the edge of the region happened to be signposted by a row of jagged rocks so tall that it wasn't too much of an exaggeration to call them "small mountains".

"Uh, Francesca?!" Amber called out. She knew it was futile and that there wasn't a chance the woman would hear her from such a distance, but she had to try something. Anything was better than letting the ship smash into a wall of rock. "Francesca?!"

Just as the ship was about to crash, she let go of the railing and threw herself to the ground. To her relief, the engine suddenly died and the boat drifted to a halt, gently tapping one of the rocks. She stood up slowly, barely trusting her legs to work, and brushed a bead of sweat off her forehead.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Francesca yelled, rushing out onto the deck.

"Trying my best not to die," Amber said, "which is actually proving to be a lot harder than it sounds. Who taught you how to sail?"

"I'm talking about the moderators!" She stepped right into Amber's face and, although they were the same height, she still felt a little intimidated. Maybe it was the eyes. They weren't just angry - it was as if they knew more than the woman was letting on. "You were meant to be guarding them!"

Amber shrugged and took a step back, pressing into the railing. "Well they didn't escape, did they?"

Francesca rubbed her temples, her face growing just a little calmer. "Forget it. We have bigger things to worry about. Look."

Amber turned around and, for the first time, she properly took in the view. As her eyes travelled along the rock wall, her heart sank. "Holy crap."

The rocks formed an impossibly long line, trailing off into the distance on both sides. They were far too tall to climb, and the gaps were too slim to squeeze through. It was as if they were trapped in an impenetrable fortress.

Even if they could somehow break out, though, Amber wasn't convinced it'd do any good, for over and beyond the rocks, she couldn't make out any sky or water. Rather, the world just looked... blank, like a thick, white fog had enveloped everything past Hoenn.

"Xatu, fly me over to the other side," Francesca said.

Amber could have kicked herself for not coming up with the obvious solution first, but it wouldn't have made any difference. The pokémon just stared at his trainer, unblinking and stoic.

"Fly, Xatu," Francesca said, slightly more frustrated. Still, the pokémon didn't move.

Maybe it was just disobedient. Amber detached her own pokéball from her belt and released Emolga. He looked up at her expectantly, eagerly awaiting her command. She crouched down to his level and gently asked, "Hey, could you do me a favour and fly over those rocks?"

Emolga flew up above her to get a better look, but then immediately landed back down. He shook his head wildly from side to side. "No?" Amber asked. "Why not?"

The pokémon looked to the ground, as if in shame. "Are you... scared?" she asked. Without looking back at her, he nodded. "Crap. Francesca, we have to get out of here."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," she said. "I don't know what's got our pokémon so spooked, but I don't like it. We'll take the boat back to Slateport and try to come up with another idea."

"Oh, will you now?"

Amber looked up and gasped in shock. Standing at the door were the three moderators, the woman in front looking rather pissed off. The two men behind her mostly just looked sea-sick. "Word of advice," the woman said. "Next time you try to knock someone out on a boat, make sure your sailing isn't so bad that it wakes them up."

"Ah, shit," Francesca said.

"It's fine, just have Xatu put them back to sleep," Amber whispered to her, but only then did she realise that Francesca wasn't looking at the door. Instead, she was looking up towards the sky.

The sky, which just so happened to be filled with more moderators, these ones atop large dragon pokémon, circling the boat.

"Ah, shit," Amber said. "I really hope you have some kind of plan."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Nathaniel stood outside the gym, leaning lazily against the wall as he waited for Hailey to return. His bracelet told him it had been twenty minutes, but it felt like so much more. He wasn't a particularly impatient person, but the simple truth was that Mauville City was crushingly, mind-numbingly dull.

It hadn't always been that way. Indeed, when he had visited during his last journey, there had been plenty to do. There were trainers to battle, pokémon to catch, things to buy. But here, in the strange, twisted tournament, none of that was present. All the trainers were too on-edge to even talk to, catching pokémon was all but impossible without some pokéballs, and the pokémart didn't sell anything but the bare essentials.

So, without any of that, there was little to do but stand around and wait. He hoped Hailey was all right - she'd mentioned that she'd been on a few journeys before, but that gym was... weird. Nathaniel had fond memories of Wattson, the kindly old man who ran the gym, but the elderly leader was nowhere in sight. In his place had been a tall, slender man in a ridiculous orange hoodie. He hadn't had any of the charm of the other leaders Nathaniel had met on his travels. Rather, the man had seemed cold and disinterested, almost as if the battle had meant nothing to him. It hadn't exactly put Nathaniel at ease when he'd gone in, and it had almost cost him the badge.

As long as Hailey could get past that, though, she'd be fine. There was a fire in her, one that reminded Nathaniel of several trainers far stronger than himself. Whether or not she was a good battler he didn't know, but he could tell that she had a determination that would take her far if she wanted it to.

Maybe it'd even take her to the hall of fame, and off of the accursed region once and for all.

He shook the unpleasant thought off. If she left, it would mean him staying, and he'd never know what truly happened to the rest of the region. Even if she managed to get help, he wasn't so naive to think that the people running the tournament would let that ruin their plans. No, he had to win.

Still, if someone else was going to win, it would be nice if it was her. She was just a kid, after all. Didn't she deserve to have a life?

"Well, you look troubled," a cheerful voice said, startling him out of his thoughts.

"Oh, Hailey," he said, looking down at the girl. He was pleased to see a wide grin plastered on her face. For whatever reason, she'd seemed somewhat down since that Amber girl had given them the cold shoulder. "I didn't see you come out. I take it you won?"

"Yep." She thrust her chest forward, showing off the shiny badge pinned to her hoodie. "That manectric sure gave aipom a run for his money, but we managed in the end."

"Glad to hear it," he said. "Now, where are we heading to next?"

"Well, you're the native. Which way's the best?"

"Let's see..." He tapped on the bracelet, bringing up the full map of the region. "We could head to Rustboro City. The gym there's one of the easier ones. At least, it was when Roxanne ran it..." He trailed off, suddenly lost in memories.

Roxanne's gym had been his first. Even if she was one of the weaker leaders, she'd still proven a challenge for him, and he'd been so proud of his team when they'd finally managed to beat her. He remembered polishing that badge every day for weeks on end, refusing to let it lose its shine.

"Rustboro sounds good," Hailey said softly, placing a hand on his arm. "And by the looks of it we can head to Dewford from there. Since it's on an island, we should probably get it out of the way soon."

"Yeah, that makes sense." He didn't bother mentioning that without a water type they had no way of getting to Dewford. If everyone else was gone, he doubted that Mister Briney's little shack would be anything but empty. "Do you have everything you need?"

"I think so. I just need to grab a couple of potions and we'll be all-"

She was cut off by a loud vibration from her bracelet. Nathaniel's was making a lot of noise too and, looking around, he could see that a number of other trainer's were sharing the same experience. He glanced down at it, only to see the same orange D that had filled the screen just a day before.

"Trainers, listen closely to this a special announcement," the distorted voice said, crackling through the bracelet's speaker. "Starting at twelve o'clock this afternoon, a boat system will be running to take you across the water. The boats will be departing from the following locations: Dewford Town, Route 101, Slateport City, Route 118, Lilycove City, Mossdeep City, Sootapolis City, Pacifidlog Town. The boat to Ever Grande City will start running once the first contestant obtains all eight badges. That will be all."

"Well," Nathaniel said, "I guess that answers that question."

* * *

Amber and Francesca's bracelets also gave out the same message, but the two of them were a little too busy to notice. "I knew this was a bad idea," Amber said, standing some distance away from the other woman in a form of protest. "If we want to escape we need to be more creative. Stealing a boat is too obvious. It's the first thing they'd suspect."

"Well now that I've eliminated the obvious option, I can move on to plan B," Francesca said. She was hunched over the boat's controls, trying her best to steer them to safety. Now that Amber was in the room with her, it was obvious that she had no idea what she was doing. She was pulling and mashing just about every lever and button there was, seemingly at random. It was no wonder the boat was rocking so wildly. "How's that door holding?"

Amber glanced to the door, which they had propped another chair up against. It was shaking, the chair slowly sliding along the floor. "It won't last much longer. Seriously, whatever this plan B is, you better get to work on it soon."

"Oh, this is still plan A," Francesca said. "Well, plan A-point-one, or something. I'd be well onto plan B by now, but apparently someone refused to keep an eye on those guards."

Amber opened her mouth to protest, but she quickly closed it and hung her head. "Sorry." She wasn't really, but it was hardly the time to have an argument. "So what exactly is plan A-point-one?"

"Get to Dewford Town, drop you off and flee from the guards."

"Wait, what?" Amber asked just as the boat lurched, nearly sending her sprawling across the floor.

"Well, I can hardly keep working with you, can I? Not after you proved to be so unreliable."

"Hey, you're the one who woke those two up with your dreadful sailing!"

"True," Francesca admitted, "but I'm the only one who can sail at all, so that's kind of a moot point. Look, I brought you along for one reason - to make sure those guards stayed locked up. If I knew you were going to mess up that badly, I'd have done this myself."

Amber folded her arms crossly, but she couldn't think of anything else to say. Even though the whole situation was her fault, she still couldn't bring herself to feel at all sorry. Maybe it'd help if Francesca wasn't acting like such a bitch.

How could the woman be so calm, anyway? That door was seconds away from giving in, and if those guards managed to catch them they would be in all sorts of trouble. And yet Francesca didn't sound at all stressed. If anything, she seemed more in control than she had before. The whole thing was... frustrating.

"Ah, there we are," Francesca said. "Dewford Town."

Looking out the window, Amber could indeed see a small town coming into view. It looked pretty quaint, with just a couple of houses spread out sporadically across the sand. Now that there was land in view, she could finally tell how fast they were going - very, very fast. The shore was approaching much too quickly, and it didn't seem like Francesca had any plans of stopping.

"Uh, Francesca," she started, but before she could finish there was a loud bang as the door was finally torn off its hinges.

"Haha, there we go!" one of the guards said, his lips spreading into a grin. "Got ya."

Amber did a quick head count. There had to be at least a dozen of them, all packed into that tiny corridor, plus who knew how many out on the deck. Even if Francesca was willing to battle, she couldn't take them all our herself. It seemed like Amber didn't have much of a choice. Her hand twitched as it reached towards Emolga's pokéball, her heart wavering as her fingers curled around it.

Sorry, everyone she thought to herself. Looks like I'm going to have to break that promise.

Just as she was about to detach the ball, however, there was a horrendous crunching noise, and suddenly the whole world turned upside down.

"Take my hand!" Francesca commanded.

Without hesitation, Amber grabbed her wrist and was pulled towards her. She stumbled, nearly taking Francesca down with her, but they managed to stay upright despite the fact that the boat was capsizing.

The thought suddenly hit her. The boat was capsizing. Slowly but surely, it was tipping onto its side, and the guards were falling with it. Which begged the question of how the two of them were still upright. She glanced around to see Xatu, staring at them with intense concentration.

So that was it. It was all part of Francesca's plan, right from the start. Even as the boat crashed onto its side, the two of them stayed perfectly still, floating in mid-air. The guards tried their best to grab them, but it was no use. They were too high up, and they were getting higher by the second. They floated right out of the now broken window and dropped gently onto the sand.

"Well, that didn't go quite according to plan," Francesca said, "but at least we're not dead."

Amber wanted to ask what their next step was, but she was a little shaken up by the huge ship that was lying on its side next to them. She opened her mouth to speak, but instead she doubled over and emptied out her stomach onto the sand.

"Ah, yeah, I thought that might happen," Francesca said, a hint of amusement in her voice. "Anyway, I'd better be off. Don't want to be caught hanging around when those guards manage to climb out of there."

She made to leave, but Amber grabbed her arm. "Wait," she managed to say as she straightened herself up. "Don't go."

"Sorry." Francesca gave her a shrug to show that she wasn't actually at all sorry. "You disobeyed me, and thus you nearly got us both killed. Now, I'm going to see if Xatu is strong enough to fly me to the nearest patch of land. I suggest you find somewhere to hide before those guys catch you."

"But-" Amber tried, but it was clear Francesca was having none of it. She tugged free of Amber's grip, hopped onto her Xatu's back and, without even a passing glance back, took off across the sea. "Well, shit."

She took a look at her surroundings, desperate to find somewhere - anywhere - to hide. There were a couple of stunned trainers, looking at her and the boat with a mix of fear and awe. None of them would be any help to her now. Neither would the houses, the pokécentre, the pokémart or the gym. The guards would be sure to look in all of those first.

The cave at the far end of the town, though? That was promising. She headed off in that direction, taking a quick glance back at the boat to make sure no one was following her yet. Despite everything that happened, she couldn't help but smile. There was something almost funny about pissing off those guards, and helping to steal and destroy one of their boats seemed like a pretty good way of doing that.

_Just wait until I tell Sis about this one._


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Amber was beginning to regret her decision. The cave hadn't seemed too bad when she'd first peered inside - damp, maybe, and freezing cold, but that was to be expected. But now that she was a good way in, it had grown dark. Really, really dark. So dark that she doubted her eyes would ever properly adjust to it. For all she knew, each step could send her tumbling down a hole and to her death. But she didn't dare stop running.

She could hear their footsteps just behind her. They were close. She only hoped that they didn't have torches, otherwise she'd be in real trouble. How had they managed to find her so fast? She was sure they weren't following her when she'd slipped inside, and she'd made sure to take a number of twists and turns to try and throw them off. Indeed, she wasn't entirely sure how she'd find her way back out, but that was a problem for later.

She thrust one arm out in front of her, the other to her side, trying to feel for any kind of wall. No such luck. For all she knew, she would just keep running into the darkness forever, never reaching any kind of end.

No, that was silly. She'd pass out from exhaustion or hunger at some point. And then she'd be found by the guards, and either imprisoned or killed for breaking the rules of the stupid game. This was a rather big mess she'd landed herself in, even by her standards.

As it turned out, though, she stopped running long before exhaustion set in. She took a step forwards, heard an unfortunate crunching sound, and suddenly there was nothing below her foot. Her stomach lurched violently. She tried to keep her balance, but it was too late. The rest of her followed after her leg, slipping through the hole to the blackness below.

It wasn't a far drop, but she hit the ground with a painful thud, and she could have sworn she heard something. The shock wave ran through her body, her legs buckled, and she fell to her knees. It was over. The guards would surely find her now, and she'd no doubt broken something, and there was nowhere left to run...

She took a deep breath. Relax, she told herself. It was only a fall, after all. She'd survived far worse in the past. There was no way anything was broken. Her ankle was in a lot pain, sure, but she'd broken bones before and this didn't feel nearly as bad. It was probably just a sprain, at the very worst.

She tried pushing herself up, but her ankle jolted with pain. Maybe it wasn't broken, but there was no way she could run on it at the moment. No, she was just going to have to crawl to freedom.

"She's down there!" a man's voice said from up above her. "Do any of you know how far a jump that is?"

"It's impossible to say," said a woman. "We'll have to play this carefully. Does anyone have any rope?"

There were murmurs, but no one gave a solid answer. Amber listened to them with baited breath, refusing to move a single muscle in case it gave away her exact position.

"You there!" the woman said. "Go get an escape rope from the pokémart. The rest of us will wait here until you get back."

"Oh come on," one of the men said. "Is that really necessary? It's not like she's going anywhere, a fall like that's bound to have injured her. And besides, even if she does somehow manage to get free, she can't exactly hide from us. I say one person waits in Dewford for her to make her move, and the rest of us go back to our actual jobs."

"Sounds like someone's afraid of the dark," another man jeered.

"No, I just-"

"Both of you, shut up," the woman interrupted. "We can't risk letting her escape again. We're only on day two and she's broken the rules twice. If we don't bring her back to the boss, we're all in trouble."

They continued arguing amongst themselves, but Amber was no longer listening. She was too hung up on that man's words. She can't exactly hide from us. What did that mean? They seemed very confident in their abilities for a bunch of such idiots.

Now that she thought about it, it was a bit strange how quickly they'd found her and Francesca. They had already been circling the boat by the time those three guards had broken out of the supply closet. Was it really so ridiculous to assume that they had some way of tracking the contestants? The only question was how...

The answer suddenly hit her. The bracelet. It was so obvious, so simple, that she wondered how she hadn't worked it out before. After all, these moderators would need some way of keeping track of everyone. It was the only thing that made sense. And, if she was right, there might have been a way to hide from them after all.

She threw herself down onto her hands and knees and began to crawl. The jagged floor cut into her hands, and her ankle screamed with pain every time she moved it, but it was no time to worry about such things.

"She's on the move," she heard the woman say behind her. "Would you hurry up and get that rope!"

That pretty much confirmed her suspicions. She kept crawling forwards, doing her best to pick up the pace. At the very least, she had to get out of ear-shot. The guards were still talking amongst themselves, so she used that as a judge. Once their voices faded into the distance, quiet enough that she had to strain to make out the words, she stopped.

She sat herself up straight, stretching her injured foot out in front of her. She grabbed Emolga's pokéball from her belt and released the small creature into her lap. Her eyes had adjusted enough for her to see the worry in his eyes. What are we doing here, they seemed to ask. She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile, then picked him up and held him closer to her face.

"Look, I know this is weird, but I don't have time to explain," she whispered. "I just need you to trust me, okay?"

He hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"Do you remember when I first introduced you to Gav?" she asked. "All the way back in Nacrene City?"

He hung his head and gave her another nod, this one small and shameful.

"No, no, no," she said quickly. "I'm not giving you into trouble. I need you to do that to me. Right here and now."

He looked up at her with confusion.

"Please?"

Perhaps he could tell how serious she was, because he didn't question her any further. Instead, he pulled his tiny body in, scrunched up his cheeks and hit her with a powerful jolt of electricity.

It hurt like hell. She knew it would. She bit her lip to stop herself from screaming. It felt like she was on fire, her insides burning to a crisp. She was just about to give up and yell in pain, but before she could it was over.

She let herself fall back against the ground. Her fingers loosened around Emolga and he stayed, floating in mid-air. She gave him a smile, too weak to thank him with words. She brought the bracelet up to her face, watched the screen fade to black and, with a click, it detached from her wrist and fell to the floor.

"Huh. It worked," she said faintly, right before passing out.

* * *

Rustboro City was much different from Mauville, in that it was far bigger and far busier. Trainers were dotted about the streets, some battling, some just chatting. Nathaniel couldn't help but smile. After seeing how closed-off and anxious everyone was in Mauville, it was nice to see that some people were beginning to open up with each other. Maybe more people would start to relax as the tournament progressed.

"So," he said, stopping just at the edge of the city, where Hailey was patiently stood waiting, "what's your plan for the rest of the day?"

She cocked her head to the side in thought. "I dunno. I don't really want to fight the gym yet, so maybe we could just sightsee for a bit?"

"Sounds good," he said. Truth be told, as much as he wanted to get home to his family, he also wanted to find some clue as to where everyone went. A little bit of sightseeing wasn't the worst place to start, especially in such a big city. "How about we start with the Devon Corporation? I've always wanted to check out the inside anyway, and since there's not going to be anyone there to stop us..."

"Nathaniel," Hailey said, " I like the way you think." She gave him a playful punch in the arm, which stung a little more than he thought it should, and took off down the path.

"Wait!" he called to her. "You don't even know where it is!" That girl was going to be the death of him.

As he had suspected, the towering building appeared just as abandoned as everywhere else. There was no security standing guard outside, although there were a couple of trainers hanging around the garden. Everything was exactly the same as the rest of the city and, most likely, the rest of the region. So why was it that something felt... off?

He scanned the area, looking for any sign of trouble. Nothing. And yet, there was that strange, sickly feeling at the bottom of his stomach. Something was out of place. But what? He was so wrapped up in his thoughts, he barely even noticed that Hailey had already ran up the path towards the front doors.

He tried to focus his mind, find out what wasn't sitting right with him. By all means, there was nothing that stood out when compared with the rest of the tournament so far. That had to mean that there was something out of place with the region itself, something different from the last time he'd visited Rustboro. It wasn't until his eyes travelled to the huge sign standing right next to him that he realised the problem.

"Hailey!" he called out, not taking his eyes off the sign. "Hailey, get back here!"

"Huh? What is it?"

"This sign." He reached out with one hand, letting his fingers trail over the elegant, fancy writing. _Moon Headquarters_.

"What about it?"

"It's supposed to say Devon Corporation," he said.

"Huh, that's weird..."

It was more than weird, but he didn't expect her to understand. "We should go. It won't be long till night-time. We should find a quiet place to rest."

"You're kinda freaking me out, Nate," she said. "Come on, I thought you wanted some adventure. Besides, it's only one thirty."

He tried to grasp for another excuse, but he had nothing. "Look, I'd just rather we..." he started, but he trailed off as something else caught his attention. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" She was looking at him with a mix of confusion and genuine worry. She probably thought he'd gone insane.

He was sure he hadn't, though. Off in the distance, he could definitely hear the unmistakable sound of a child crying. "Wait here. I'll be right back." He took off, ignoring her as she called out to him.

It didn't take him long to follow the sound to its source. He found the boy sitting on the ground just outside the city, doubled over as the tears flooded out. He paused just before he reached him, suddenly realising that he had no idea how to approach a crying child.

Hailey flew past him, rushing over to the boy. Nathaniel hadn't even realised that she had followed him. She crouched down next to the boy and gave him a smile, which he noticed but didn't return. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"He... he took her," the boy managed to say.

"Took who?" Nathaniel asked, joining Hailey by his side.

"Abby." He wiped the tears with his sleeve and said, firmer this time, "He took Abby."

"Abby?" Nathaniel asked. "Is she your...?"

"Is she your pokémon?" Hailey asked gently, cutting him off. The boy nodded.

"Ah," Nathaniel said. His guess had been way off. But thinking about it, that made a lot more sense. Pokémon thievery was a far more common crime than kidnapping.

"She's my abra," the boy said.

"Here." Hailey pulled a hanky out of her hoodie's pocket and handed it to him. "Just calm down and tell us what happened, okay?"

The boy gave them another nod before blowing hard into the hanky. "I was headed to Rustboro," he said, "when the man showed up. He whistled, there was a rustling noise, something hit me and when I came to, the last thing I saw was him running towards the forest."

"What did the man look like?" Nathaniel asked.

"I didn't get a good look at his face." His voice was quivering now. Clearly he was on the verge of more tears. "He was tall, though. Really tall. And he wore some kind of cape."

"Well, he sounds easy enough to find," Hailey said. "Don't worry, we'll get Abby back in no time."

"Really?" The boy looked up to her, then to Nathaniel.

"Yeah," Nathaniel said with a warm smile. "We can't have you running around without a pokémon, after all."

Hailey shot him a scornful look, which he didn't really understand until she added, "And I'm sure Abby wants her best friend back, too."

"Uh, yeah, that too," Nathaniel said apologetically. He'd forgotten how attached young trainers were to their pokémon. "So, he want off that way?" he asked, pointing towards the forest.

The boy nodded. "I don't know where he was going, though."

"Well," he said, "there are only a few places he could be heading. We'll ask around. Someone must have seen something. Sorry, Hailey, looks like we'll have to wait for our next badge."

"That's fine," she said. "We'll just have to find Abby quickly and work extra hard from now on. Can you stand up?" She helped the boy to his feet. He wobbled a bit, but she wrapped her arm over his shoulders to help him keep his balance. "So, into the forest then?"

"Yeah, into the forest," Nathaniel said, trying his best to sound confident. His last visit to that particular forest had been... less than pleasant. "By the way, I never did ask your name, kiddo."

"It's Harry," the boy said.

"Well Harry," he said, "you're going to want to stay behind us. This isn't exactly an easy journey to make without a pokémon." Or with one, he added mentally, visions of his first journey flashing through his mind. Yeah, this definitely wasn't going to be easy.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

By the time they got out of the forest, it was the middle of the afternoon. The moment they stepped out of the cover of the trees, Nathaniel breathed a sigh of relief. He'd never been so happy to see the sun. "Finally," he said. "We finally made it."

"Oh, man up, will you?" Hailey teased, poking him lightly in the ribs. "It's not like that was hard or anything. We didn't even run into a single pokémon."

"Hailey," he said, looking down at the young girl, "you have no idea what that forest can be like."

"You mean the forest that leads straight to the easiest gym in the region, the one that rookies usually take on first?"

"Uh, yeah," he admitted.

"Sounds to me like you were making a big fuss over nothing." She held her head up high and stalked off down the path, as if to show that she had won. In fairness, she probably had.

He hung back, partly because he knew it was pointless arguing further and partly for the benefit of their newest companion. For all the way through the forest, Harry had lumbered slowly along with them, almost as if he was sleep-walking. He'd kept his eyes planted on the ground and he hadn't so much as spoken a word. Apparently the loss of his pokémon was hitting him pretty bad.

"Hey, you okay?" Nathaniel asked. Without lifting his eyes, the boy gave a small nod. "We're going to get Abby back soon, alright? I promise."

The boy nodded again. His lip was quivering, as if he was doing his best not to cry. If this was his attempt at hiding his emotions, he wasn't doing a very good job.

Not that Nathaniel was totally unsympathetic. He understood exactly how attached trainers could become to their pokémon. Sure, he'd never felt that close to his team - they were his pets, not his friends - but he understood. And if getting that abra back was going to put a smile on the boy's face then, dammit, Nathaniel was going to do everything he could to make sure they returned her to him.

"Hey, Hailey, wait up!" he called out, suddenly realising how far down the path she was. Another couple of steps and she'd disappear around the corner.

She didn't seem to hear him, though. She just kept skipping along, adamant to get to Petalburg before him. It was only when she made to turn the corner that she stopped, and that was only because she walked head-first into another trainer.

"Hailey, watch where you're going!" Nathaniel said, hurrying to catch up to her. He was fond of the kid, but he was really beginning to feel like a parent instead of a friend. "I apologise for my friend. She's in a bit of a rush."

"Hey, don't worry about it," the trainer said. To his credit, he didn't sound at all bothered, almost as if people ran straight into him every day.

Indeed, there wasn't a single thing about him that seemed bothered by anything. There was so much gel in his slick black hair that it stayed perfectly still in the wind, his shirt was so form-fitting and so tightly tucked into his jeans that it didn't rustle at all, and his dark brown skin was perfectly smooth and unblemished. It was as if the world had no effect on him at all.

"Sorry, Sir," Hailey said, stepping away from him. "It's just, we're trying to help this boy find his pokémon. Apparently it was stolen from him."

"Wh-what!" he stammered, his cool composure suddenly breaking. "That..." He took a breath, composed himself, ran a hand through his slick, black hair and slipped right back to being laid back. "That's unforgivable."

"Yeah, we've been trying to help him find it, but we haven't had much luck so far," Nathaniel said. "Say, you wouldn't have happened to see a man in a green cape floating about, would you?"

"Hmm..." The trainer cocked his head to the side, apparently deep in thought. "Now that you mention it, I think I did see someone like that back in Petalburg. I only got a passing glance as he left the town, but I do remember thinking that the cloak was an odd choice."

"Do you know where he went?!" Hailey asked, almost jumping with excitement.

The trainer gave it another thought, then shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not. But I only saw him about half an hour ago, so I doubt he's gone far. He was heading up this way, actually."

"Strange," Nathaniel said. "You'd have thought we'd have ran into him. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Hailey asked.

"Unless he took the boat to Dewford Town. Which would have left..." He paused to check his bracelet. "Which would have left about fifteen minutes ago. That's got to be it!"

"Well, if you guys are heading to Dewford," the trainer said, crossing his arms in an attempt to look as cool as possible, "then I guess I might as well tag along. After all, I can't just stand by while there's a pokémon thief on the lose, can I?"

"Very well," Nathaniel said. "We'll get the three o'clock boat. Until then, I suggest we wait here and think up some kind of strategy, just in case we run into this thief."

"Sounds good to me," the trainer said. "But first, I should probably introduce myself, shouldn't I? The name's Gavin. Gavin West."

Nathaniel offered out his hand. "Nathaniel," he said as Gavin shook it. "Nathaniel Smith."

"And I'm Hailey!" Hailey said. "And this here's Harry, although I don't think he's much in the mood for talking."

"Well, that won't do, will it?" Gavin said. "I guess we're just going to have to work even harder to find your pokémon." He gave the kid a wink and, to Nathaniel's surprise, the boy's lips curled into something almost resembling a smile.

Whoever this Gavin was, Nathaniel was beginning to like him.

* * *

As much as Amber hated to admit it, her situation seemed totally hopeless. Despite that, she ambled along in the darkness, dragging what she was now convinced was a sprained ankle behind her. Emolga was back in his ball. He was a reliable partner most of the time, but she couldn't count on him being quiet.

She had no idea how long she'd been out for. The cave was, naturally, still as pitch black as it had been before, and she no longer had a bracelet to tell her the time. Still, it seemed like a worthy sacrifice. After all, she had woken up to the sound of several very frustrated guards, which could only mean that her plan had worked.

Now all she had to do was find a way out of the cave, a task that was proving to be much easier said than done. Every time she felt a wall, she turned to the right, not for any particular reason, but more because she had to turn in one direction and the right seemed as good as any. For all she knew, though, she'd been walking in circles for the last... however long it had been.

How long had it been? She had no idea. The rumbling from her stomach told her it must have been a while, though. Then again, she hadn't eaten anything since the jam roll that morning. There were still a good few rolls in her bag, but she could tell just by feeling them that they were hopelessly crushed, most of them practically fused with the cellophane wrapping. They didn't feel very appetising right now, but in another few hours they would probably seem pretty appealing.

Now, though, she had settled to living with the gnawing hunger. The groans from her stomach, the crunching stones underneath her feet, the painful scraping sound as she pulled her ankle along behind her, after a while it just became white noise. It all blended into the background and before long she stopped noticing it. A short time later, she stopped feeling anything either. She just walked, her thoughts rolling around in her head.

You're going to be down here forever. Not even those guards will find you now. No one will ever know. Not your sister, not your mother, no one. Your body, your skeleton, will lie on this cave for all of time.

Eventually those thoughts faded too, until there was nothing but the path ahead of her. She just walked, not hearing, not seeing, not feeling, not thinking. Every time she hit a wall, she turned as if on instinct. She might have been down there for minutes, or for hours, or for weeks. For all she knew, she'd already died. If that wasn't death, she wasn't sure what was.

And then she felt something, and everything snapped back into place. Once again she was hungry, and scared, and so very, very tired. But for the first time since she'd been in that cave, she felt something else. Hope. For the thing in front of her wasn't the cold stone wall she'd grown so used to.

It was rope.

She felt around frantically, trying to work out what it was in front of her. Now that she'd been brought back to the real world, she could see a faint flicker of light coming down from above, but it wasn't enough to tell what the rope was attached to. She only prayed that it wasn't just dangling there from the upper level. Sure it'd technically be a way out, but the rope climb had always been her least favourite part of P.E.

It wasn't just a rope. It was a ladder. She breathed a sigh of relief. A ladder, she could manage, even with her messed up ankle. She placed her foot roughly where she thought the first rung was, and just about cried out in sheer joy when she realised she was no longer standing on the cave floor.

Her ankle didn't make things easy, but she knew she could do it. She knew it wouldn't be pleasant, but she stepped up onto the rung, gritted her teeth and did her best to bear the pain. I can do this, she told herself.

She repeated the words in her head with every step. I can do this. One more rung. I can do this. Another step up. I can do this!

It was far from an easy climb, but it wasn't a long one, and soon she could feel herself getting near to the top. The light was getting brighter now, and she could see the edge of the next floor. With one hand, she let go of the ladder and grabbed onto it. Confident that she had a good grip, she did the same with her other hand and heaved herself up.

It didn't work. Her fingers slipped, her ankle buckled and she fell. She'd have hit the bottom, except something else grabbed onto her wrists and, with a single yank, pulled her all the way up.

She'd made it. Sweat was pouring off her face, and her ankle was absolutely killing her, but she'd made it. There was light, there was warmth, and, more importantly, there was a person. Under normal circumstances she'd have been worried that they were another guard, but these were not normal circumstances and she was too relieved to think of such things.

"Well, well, well," the person said. "What have we here?"

She forced herself to look up at them. They were a man, older than anyone else she'd seen so far. Possibly mid-twenties? She couldn't be sure. His long, black hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, and it might have just been that her eyesight was messed up but she could have sworn there was a streak of green running through it. Then again, maybe her eyes weren't to be trusted, because strangest of all, the man seemed to be wearing a cape, and that didn't make any sense at all. At the very least, she hoped that the fire that was burning behind him wasn't just a figment of her imagination.

"Ooo," he said as he stepped out of her line of sight, "that doesn't look too good. Let's see..."

"Ah!" she screamed, pain bursting through her ankle.

"Sorry, I imagine that must have hurt," the man said. "Still, it doesn't look too bad. A bit swollen maybe, but I think you've just twisted it. Here, give me a second."

She wanted to ask what he was doing, but her throat was too dry. When was the last time she'd had anything to drink? She had no idea. If she'd had the energy, she'd have grabbed a water bottle from her bag.

"Okay, this is probably going to sting," the man said, "but I promise I'm trying to help you."

She felt him lift her leg up. "What are you..." she managed to say, but before she could finish she was overcome with pain.

There was an immense pressure on her ankle, as if he was squeezing it under his armpit. Even as he put her leg down, though, the pain didn't fade. "I've wrapped it in bandages," he said, "which isn't the ideal solution, but it's the best I can do. I wish I had some ice for the swelling but, alas, I have yet to find any."

He moved back in front of her and offered her his hands. Before she really knew what she was doing, she took them, and he helped her into a sitting position.

"Now," he said, "I would highly recommend that you don't walk on that for a good few hours. Normally I'd suggest a few days, but I'm afraid that the circumstances are a little too... dire for that, aren't they?"

She nodded, but she could barely make out what he was saying. Why was he still talking anyway? All she wanted to do was get some sleep.

"Here, take this." He lifted his cape, unclipped a bottle and handed it to her. "I imagine you've been through some shit. Why don't you tell me what happened?"

She took a huge gulp of what she was pleased to discover was water, then wiped the rest off of her face. Immediately she felt much better. Not good, but better. At the very least, she'd be able to talk. "It's... a long story."

"So I would think," he said. "After all, I hardly thought there would be a short story behind a young girl travelling through a dark cave on her own, especially when there aren't any pokémon to catch."

She wondered if she should tell him what happened. He had, after all, helped her a great deal. It wasn't too much of a stretch to say he saved her life. She at least owed him some sort of explanation. "I pissed off the moderators. They came after me, I hid in this cave, and now I'm here."

"Ah," he said. "So I suppose those cloaked figures I saw at the entrance were looking for you, then? You must have done something really bad. They looked furious."

She shrugged. "I... might have helped someone steal one of their boats."

"That boat at the docks?" She nodded. "And I suppose you're the reason it was on its side?" She nodded. "Wow."

"Are you going to turn me in now?"

"And why would I do that?" he asked. "I mean, do I look like a moderator to you?"

"Well, you are wearing a cape..."

"Oh please. Theirs are bright orange. Hideous, garish things. Does mine look anything like that?"

He seemed genuinely offended, but she really couldn't see why. "I... guess not?" she tried.

It apparently satisfied him, and he gave her a warm kind of smile. "So, I don't believe I've asked for your name yet."

"It's Amber," she said. She wasn't too keen on the fact that she'd given out her name to a total of four people in the past two days, but she felt like she could trust this man. "Amber Sky."

"Pleased to meet you, Amber," he said. "As for me, you may call me Quinn."

"So, Quinn," she said, pausing to take another swig from the bottle. God, had water always tasted that amazing? "I've told you my story. Now I believe it's your turn. What is someone like you doing in a cave like this?"

"Well," he said, giving her a cheeky little grin. "If you must know, I came here after I found a poor, abused Abra all the way back in Rustboro City."

"And that brought you here... why?"

"Simple. I came here to liberate her."

Liberate. It was funny how a simple word could change so much. Because, with just that one, single word, all of that trust melted away, along with just about everything else. The pain, the hunger, Amber felt none of it.

Instead, all she felt was anger.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

"Liberate?" Amber repeated, trying her best to hold down her vomit as she said it. "That's a very... _specific_ choice of word."

"Yes, well, it's by far the best way to put it," Quinn said. He was still perfectly calm - either he hadn't realised the effect his words were having on her, or he just didn't care. "I don't know if you know this or not, but pokémon liberation is actually a well-established ideology in certain parts of the world."

"Oh, I know," she said through gritted teeth. Her fingers gripped the ground, digging into the stones. "I'm from Unova."

His face suddenly lit up. "Then you must be well aware of what it is I'm doing. Tell me, Miss Sky, have you ever been to a Plasma rally? I imagine it would be quite something."

"No, I can't say that I have." Her eyes narrowed, studying every detail of the man's face. How was it that someone who looked so calm and collected could be such a bastard? "I don't tend to support terrorists."

"Ah, it's a pity that you feel that way," he said with a shrug. "But I suppose it can't be helped. After all, I shouldn't expect the dim-witted masses to understand such greatness."

She sprang to her feet, her hand snapping to Emolga's ball. "You have no idea what you're talking about. I've seen Team Plasma up close. They are _vile._"

He took a step away from her, perhaps scared that she was going to attack him. But then, his lips were still curled into that smug little smirk. "Think what you will," he said, "but in the end, you will see that we were right all along. It is trainers like you who are what is wrong with the world."

That tore it. She may have sworn against it, but in that moment, she didn't give a shit. She unclipped Emolga's ball from her belt. _He deserves it,_ she told herself as she reached for the button. _More than anyone else, _he_ deserves it._

Before she could bring herself to open the ball, however, Quinn stuck two fingers in his mouth and let out a high whistle. She didn't even have time to work out why - suddenly something swept at her legs, her ankle screamed with pain and her chin smacked against the ground.

"Word of advice," she heard Quinn say, "don't pick a fight with someone who knows your weak-spots. I thought you'd know that, being a trainer and all."

She tried to pick herself up off the ground, but there was another burst of pain every time she tried to move her ankle. "You're... going to pay," she said weakly.

"That seems doubtful." He took a deep breath and blew out the fire, and the darkness engulfed them. "Goodbye, Miss Sky. I do hope we meet again sometime."

She stayed still and listened to his fading footsteps. It was weird, but she swore if she strained her ears, she could hear another set of footsteps, these ones even fainter than his. Maybe they belonged to whomever - or _whatever_ \- had knocked her to the ground.

She couldn't worry about that, though. Instead, she rolled over onto her back and let out the tears that she'd been holding in. She hadn't even battled him, and she'd lost. The feeling was just as bitter as she remembered it. It was almost like fate. She was destined to lose to people like him. People like them.

No matter how far she travelled, they were always there. _Plasma_.

* * *

"Woah, it is _dark_ in there," Gavin said as he peered into Granite Cave. "You sure we have to go in?"

"There are three other trainers on this island," Nathaniel stated. "Two of them saw a man with a green cape heading in there. That's definitely the right place."

"Okay..." As much as Gavin wanted to help Harry get his pokémon back, this suddenly wasn't feeling like such a good idea. Sure, he'd ventured into pitch black caves before, but he'd always had a full team of pokémon with him. More importantly, though, he'd always had a torch.

"What are you, scared or something?" Hailey teased.

"No!" he snapped. "I mean, no," he said coolly, running a hand through his hair. "But it's not going to be easy to find anything in there."

"Oh, I can help with that," she said. She took off her backpack and stuck her hand inside, rummaging around for something. After a few moments, she pulled out a battered looking torch and handed it to Gavin. "Here you go. I found it back at the trick-house. I don't know how much battery it has left, but it should work for a bit."

"Great," Gavin said, trying his best to sound thankful. "I guess we're going in now." He made to take his first reluctant step into the cave, but Nathaniel stopped him.

"Wait," he said. "I'm not sure I'm happy with the idea of Harry coming in with us. I mean, we're chasing down a criminal. This is going to be dangerous enough for us, and we have our pokémon to protect us."

"I'll be fine," Harry said faintly. He was standing back from the rest of the group, his head still pointed towards the ground. He didn't look at all sure of himself. "Don't worry about me."

"Agreed," Gavin said. "Maybe-"

"I'll stay with him, if you want," Hailey said, stealing the idea right out of Gavin's mouth. "I mean, I'm the youngest. If someone's staying behind, it should be me, right?"

"Thank you, Hailey," Nathaniel said. "You two go and wait in the pokécentre for us. If we're not back in an hour, go and find someone who can help us."

"Got it," Hailey said. "See you guys soon." She took Harry by the hand and gently led him away from the cave and towards the centre.

"Now, I believe you were about to lead the way?" Nathaniel asked.

"Yeah," Gavin said. He flicked the torch on and stepped inside. "I guess I was."

* * *

Once again, Amber stumbled through the darkness, trying to feel for anything that could help her. She'd have liked a moment to rest, but now wasn't the time. First she had to find her way out; _then_ she could take a nice, long nap.

Not that escaping was going to be easy. Those guards were still looking for her, after all, and they were no doubt waiting for her at the exit. It wasn't like she could just disguise herself either - they'd know it was her from the lack of her bracelet. On top of that, Quinn was still roaming around somewhere, and as much as she'd have liked another chance at him, she knew that she wasn't in any position to take him down.

But she could worry about all that later. All that she cared about now was finding some source of light, and hopefully one that wasn't a fire lit by an insane ass hole.

That's when she saw it. It was dim, and it was flickering, and it definitely wasn't the sun, but it was light and that's all that mattered. She hurried around the corner, desperate to find the source, and just about cried out in frustration when she saw it.

Sitting in the middle of an otherwise empty room was another fire. Quinn had been there. Fortunately he wasn't there now, but that was really just more bad news. Since there wasn't an exit, and since she was sure the path there had been completely straight, and since hadn't bumped into Quinn on the way there, it meant that he'd been here before she'd met him. In other words, he'd been down this way, realised there was no exit and had turned around. She'd wasted all that time walking towards a dead end.

She was just about to cut her losses and head back when something else caught her attention. It was faint - if it wasn't for the silence of the cave, she never would have heard it - but she turned her attention towards it anyway. There, crawling out from behind the fire, was a tiny little abra.

"Hey there," she said, crouching down to greet it. "Were you taken from your trainer?"

The abra let out a frightened squeal and backed off, its clawed foot clicking off of something behind it. Amber peered around the pokémon, trying to get a look at what was on the ground.

It was a pokéball. Or, rather, it had been a pokéball. Now it lay in two separate parts, broken beyond all repair. Obviously she'd been right - this abra was indeed the one Quinn had taken.

"Come here," she said, reaching out towards the pokémon. "I'll take you back to your trainer, okay?"

The abra backed off a little more, and she stretched out further, trying to grab its hand. As her fingers touched its skin, however, there was a loud poof and the abra was gone.

"Great," she said to herself, "I forgot they did that."

She'd never attempted to catch an abra before, but she had once caught a ralts, and she guessed she was in for a similar experience. Thinking back, she'd only been able to catch the ralts once Emolga had paralysed him. Maybe doing the same here wasn't such an awful idea. After all, it was just an abra - what threat did it really pose?

But she couldn't bring herself to do it. She'd already come so close to breaking her rule earlier, and she wasn't about to do it again. She couldn't ask Emolga to battle for her, even if it was just an abra. No, she was going to have to do this by herself.

Of course, first she actually had to _find_ the abra. She straightened herself up and scanned the room, hoping the fire wouldn't flicker out before she'd spotted it. It didn't take too long - the pokémon was sitting with its back against the cave wall, staring up at her through terrified, trembling eyes.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," she said delicately, carefully tiptoeing towards it. "I just want to help."

She stopped herself before she got too close. Another step and it was bound to disappear again. She doubted it could teleport far - if it could, it'd have been long gone by now - but it would still be a nuisance. Now that she was up close, though, she could see why it was so frightened. There was a deep looking cut, running right along the poor thing's face. What had Quinn done to it? He really was just like the rest of them. They were all so obsessed with liberating and freeing pokémon but, when it came right down to it, they were the ones doing the most damage.

She was different, though. She just had to prove it. She shrugged off her bag and reached inside, pulling out some sort of roll. As she'd expected, it was hopelessly crushed, and it took some effort to find a bit that hadn't melded into the cellophane. Once she had, though, she tore the chunk off and held it out in front of her, offering it to the creature. "Here," she said, "take it."

The abra looked at the food with a mixture of fear and excitement. It took a hesitant step forwards, then another, and suddenly it reached out and grabbed the bread right out of her hand. It dashed away, devouring it within seconds.

"Here," Amber said, sitting the bag down in front of her, "there's plenty more. Help yourself."

It moved over to the bag, more confident now, and peered inside. It just about jumped in, and she could hear it tearing at her food. Now that it was inside, she picked up the bag and swung it back over her shoulder. She just hoped the pokémon would stay inside until she could find its trainer.

That could wait though. First she had to find her way out of that stupid cave. She turned around to head outside and was promptly blinded by a bright light.

_Shit,_ she thought to herself. They'd found her. Ah well, she hadn't really expected to leave without getting caught. At the very least, maybe the moderators would help the abra find its trainer. "Okay, you win," she said, throwing her arms up in surrender. "Just promise you won't hurt my pokémon."

"Amber?" a familiar voice asked as the torch was lowered.

She squinted as her vision slowly returned. "Gavin? What the hell are you doing here?"


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Amber smiled as Gavin flicked his torch off, trying to resist the urge to run over and pull him into a hug. How long had it been? Five months? It felt like longer. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she'd missed him. Now that he was standing in front of her, desperately trying to keep his cool composure, the whole situation didn't seem quite so bad. Maybe it was selfish, but she was glad he was there.

"Wait, you two know each other?" someone else said, stepping out from behind Gavin. It was that good-looking blonde from earlier. Nathaniel, was it? What the hell was going on?

"Yeah, me and Amber go way back," Gavin said. "It's a long story."

"We can go into later," she said. "There are more important things to discuss. Namely, what are you two doing here?"

"Oh, we came here to catch a thief," Gavin said casually, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "You wouldn't have happened to bump into him, would you?"

"This thief of yours," she said. "Tall man, long black hair, wears a stupid-looking cape?"

"Yes, that's him," Nathaniel said. "Where is he?"

"No idea. I saw him a while back, but he slipped away. I _did_ manage to find this little guy though." She prodded her bag with her elbow, and the abra popped its head out to greet them.

"Oh thank God," Nathaniel said. "We've been looking for her. But why would the thief just let her go...?"

"I think I can explain that, too," she said, turning back to Gavin. "His name is Quinn. He's one of those nut-job Plasma admirers."

Fear flickered over Gavin's face, but it was gone in an instant. "Well shit."

"Plasma?" Nathaniel asked.

"Another long story," she told him. "Let's just say that I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of him."

"Yeah, those guys always have a way of showing up exactly when you don't want them to," Gavin said. "As if this whole thing wasn't a big enough pain in the ass already."

"Yes, well, we can worry about that once we've gotten out of here," Nathaniel said.

"Ah, about that..." she said. "There's a... slight chance that there are a bunch of moderators searching the cave for me as we speak."

"What?!"

"Amber, what did you do?" Gavin asked, not sounding at all surprised.

"It's-"

"Don't tell us it's a long story," Nathaniel said. "We need to know exactly what happened. And... what happened to your bracelet?"

She looked to Gavin for help, but he just gave her a wordless shrug. "Okay, fine," she said with a sigh, and launched into her story. She didn't leave out a single detail. Gavin knew her too well; he'd be able to tell if she was lying.

"I should have known that boat was your fault," he said once she was finished, still sounding remarkably calm about the whole thing. Did she really get herself into trouble that often? "Although I have to say, I'm not sure breaking your bracelet like that was a good move."

"We can talk about this later," Nathaniel said. "We have to go. I'm sorry, Amber, but I don't see any other options. We're just going to have to take that abra and leave without you."

"Woah, woah, woah," Gavin said, "I'm not leaving her behind. You can go if you want, but I'm sticking with her."

She felt her heart lift a little. It was nice to have someone properly on her side. "Yeah," she said, "and if you want the abra, you're just going to have to take it from us."

Nathaniel groaned. "Alright, fine, you can come with us. We'll just have to find a way to sneak you out." With that, he turned around and headed down the dark path, not even waiting to see if they were following.

"Well, you heard the man," Gavin said. "Do you want a head-start?"

She couldn't help but smile at the line. It was good to see that he still hadn't changed. She hadn't either, not really, and in normal circumstances she'd have given him some snarky response. But these weren't normal circumstances. "Actually, do you mind taking my arm?"

He scoffed. "What, are you planning to distract the moderators with a waltz?"

She slapped his arm. "Don't be an idiot. It's just, I really hurt my ankle back there."

"Ah, I see," he said. "You need my help. Well, I'd be happy to offer it. For a small fee, of course."

"How about you take my arm," she said, "and I don't have Emolga thundershock you so hard that you go blind?"

"That's fair." He held his arm out and she took it gratefully, resting her entire weight on him. "Now, shall we?"

The torch was flicked back on and the two of them headed down the corridor, Amber still limping painfully but finding the walk a lot easier now that she was in pleasant company.

"Okay, don't let this get to your head," he said, "but I'm really glad you're here. And I don't mean in an, 'I'm really glad that you're part of a tournament on a strange region that we're never going to escape from' kind of way. I mean in a genuine, 'I'm glad that you're with me' kind of way."

"Wow," she said, "that was actually kind of sweet. You feeling okay?"

He shrugged. "All I'll say is the last two days weren't exactly fun. The kid I woke up next to was totally anti-social. That's me saying that, by the way, and I've been friends with _you_ for the last seven years."

"He must have been bad, then."

"You have no idea. We woke up together, travelled up Route 101 together, ate lunch in the pokécentre together, and I don't think he spoke a single word the entire time. When I woke up the next day, he was gone and I haven't seen him since."

"Well, he still sounds better than my sleeping-partner," she said.

"Ah, that Francesca girl you mentioned, right? Yeah, I suppose my partner didn't steal and then capsize a boat, so that's a plus."

"In her defence," she said, "it was still a better plan than taking on the gyms. I mean, can you imagine following this tournament's rules? That's the real crazy move."

There was a moment of silence before he said, "Yeah, I guess you're right. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, it's good to see you."

"You too," she said with a smile.

"And," he said, "it's good to see you up and about again too."

"Hey!" She gave him another slap on the arm. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you _not_ spend your time away from me moping around the house?"

"No!" she said. "I also... er..." What _had_ she done in the last six months? She couldn't think of a single important or productive thing. On the other hand, she _could_ remember a lot of TV programmes, a lot of books and a lot of meaningless, annoying conversations with her sister.

Huh, maybe she _had_ just been moping around the house.

"That's what I thought," he said smugly.

"No, I was just thinking of all the amazing things I've been doing without you," she said. "Like that time I, er, went to Castelia City to buy some clothes."

"Ooo, _adventurous,_" he said. "Who did you go with?"

She hung her head. "My sister."

"And?"

"And my mother."

"I knew it," he said. "I knew you couldn't live without me."

"You know, it's not just because you weren't there," she snapped, desperate for any kind of defence. The moment she said it, though, she regretted it.

"Yeah, I know," he said, his voice suddenly serious. "Sorry."

"No, don't be," she said. "It was my own fault. Really, I'm just... I'm just glad you're back."

He looked to her with that classic Gavin-smile, showing off his dazzling teeth. "Me too."

"Would you two hurry up!" Nathaniel called from up-ahead. "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to get out of here before tomorrow!"

* * *

Francesca sat with her feet kicked up on the pokécentre's table, nursing her wrist with a bag of ice she'd found in the fridge. That bracelet had been sturdier than it had looked. Three bashes with a rock and she'd only scratched the screen. Another three and it cracked. It took five after that for the screen to finally cut to black. She had no way of knowing if she'd broken the tracer inside it, but she guessed by the lack of guards swarming the centre that she probably had.

If only she'd had an electric type with her. A quick jolt and the bracelet would have been dead for good. Maybe she'd been too hasty in separating herself from Amber. But no, the girl had refused to follow her lead. She couldn't keep working with someone like that, regardless of how closely aligned their motives might have been.

Gently, she lifted the ice off her wrist. It wasn't doing much good anyway. The bracelet was still in the way; she'd tried everything to get it off, from brute force to Xatu's psychic powers. No such luck. She guessed she'd just have to fight through to the end with a dead weight stuck to her arm. She wouldn't have minded so much, but she'd felt something sharp cut into her wrist when the thing had broken, and a sliver of blood was trickling out from underneath the metal strap.

If she was a more trusting person, she might have tried to find someone to help her get it off and, indeed, to help her fix up her wrist. But, alas, she was not, and so she accepted her fate. It wasn't going to make the journey easier, but she didn't really have a choice in the matter.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by a sharp beep from the back of the room. She headed over to the counter, heaved open the healing machine that sat behind it and pulled out Xatu's ball. It was a good thing she knew how to work those machines. After their crash landing in Littleroot Town, she doubted he would have been much good for anything.

She clicked the ball back onto her belt and returned to her seat, trying to figure out her next move. If the room wasn't pitch-black, she would have pulled out a notepad to jot down her ideas. She didn't know how close those guards were, though, so she figured it was best to keep the lights off for now.

The whole tournament was really beginning to piss her off. Everything from the moderators, to all the idiots that she expected to compete against, to the jagged rocks and the strange fog that prevented her escape. They hadn't exactly surprised her, but they were still annoying. What she needed now was a plan.

The first step, she supposed, was to find out who was behind the whole thing. After that, though, she had nothing. It would have helped if she could actually catch some pokémon. Her knowledge of Hoenn's wildlife would have been sure to give her an advantage over her opponents.

She realised that was barely even the beginning of an actual plan, but she had absolutely nothing else to go on. As small as it was, though, it was still something, and it gave her a good idea of where to start: Rustboro City. It was, after all, the biggest city she could reach at the moment. There were bound to be some clues there.

And so, she leaned back in her seat with a content smile. She would head off as soon as the sun rose. Until then, all that she could do was sleep.

* * *

"Well, can you see anything?" Amber asked. Her and Nathaniel were pressed up against the cave wall while Gavin peered around the corner, searching the area with his torch.

"Yeah," he said, stepping back to join the two of them. "The entrance is just up ahead, but there are two guards watching over it."

"Only two?"

"The others must still be searching the cave for you," Nathaniel said. "We got lucky, but we'll need to move fast. Whereabouts are these guards, Gavin?"

"One's to the left," he said, "the other's to the right. You and Amber can take the left one and I'll-"

"Woah, no thank you," Amber said. "I do not want to pick a fight with them."

"And yet you helped steal and destroy one of their boats," Nathaniel said through gritted teeth. "Now are you going to help or not?"

"No," she said. "I'm sorry, but I'm no fighter."

"Ugh, still?" Gavin said. "Alright, fine. Nathaniel, you take the left one, I'll take the right one."

"What, aren't you going to fight her on this?" he asked. "She's the one who got us into this mess. The least she can do is help us get out of it."

Gavin turned to her, but before he could make any kind of case, she rose her eyebrow and shot him a warning glare. She knew it would work. After all, she'd been using it for eight years and it hadn't failed once.

"Sorry, man," Gavin said. "She's not backing down on this."

"Okay, we'll go with your plan then," he said. "But if we both die, it's her fault."

"Oh, I totally agree," Gavin said, giving her his own cocky look. "And I promise, I will come back as a ghost pokémon and I will haunt the shit out of you."

"Will you shut up?" she said. "You'll be fine. I'm sure you can handle one little guard."

He winked. "Damn straight I can. Nathaniel, let's move." He unclipped a ball from his belt, gripped it tight in his hand and ran off to the right.

"Just so you know," Nathaniel said, scowling at her as he removed his own pokéball, "I'm only doing this for the poor kid that's missing his pokémon. If it was up to me, you'd have to deal with those guards yourself."

"Please just go," she said.

Without another word, he took off and disappeared around the corner.

She was too nervous to even look, but she could hear the fights breaking out. There was a lot of yelling coming from the right. That'd be Gavin, she guessed. He always did go over-the-top with his battles. The left, on the other hand, was surprisingly quiet, but if she concentrated she could just about hear the angered voice of the guard.

She waited about thirty seconds before moving. The fights were in full-swing by that point, so it was the best chance she had. Slowly, she peered around the corner to make sure she was in the clear. The exit was just up ahead, the burnt orange light of the sunset flickering through. It wasn't far, but she wondered if she could make it with her dodgy ankle. Then again, there was only one way of finding out.

Her foot scraped behind her as she limped into the dim light ahead of her. As she got closer, though, she began to pick up her pace, first to a light jog, then to a full-on run. Her ankle was killing her, but she didn't care. All that mattered was getting out of that cave. She kept running, ignoring everything else that was going on around her. Bangs and crashes were coming from the left and right as the battles grew more intense, but she did her best to tune them out.

The ground crunched beneath her feet, the air grew steadily warmer, and suddenly she was free, basking in the evening sun.

And then her ankle gave way and she fell face-first onto the sand.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Amber rolled onto her back, wriggling her shoulders free from her backpack. Her ankle was killing her, but at least the sand was soft and the evening sun was warm. All things considered, it wasn't the worst place to be stuck. She considered sitting up to try and see into the cave, but it'd be too much effort. Besides, Gavin would be fine. He always was. Right now, all she wanted to do was sleep.

"Amber? Is that you?"

Oh good, another familiar voice. She squeezed her eyes shut. If she really tried, maybe she could just will the person out of existence.

"What are you doing here?"

Nope, it was no use. They weren't going away any time soon. She opened her eyes, not at all surprised to see Hailey standing over her, a worried expression on her face.

"Are you okay?" Hailey asked.

"I'm fine," Amber said flatly. "I just needed a rest." She made to push herself up, but a burst of pain from her ankle stopped her. She bit down on her lip to stop from yelling out.

"No, you're not fine," Hailey said, with all the sternness of a concerned parent. "Here, let me help you."

Amber might have resisted, but she just didn't have the energy to stop the young girl from grabbing her arms and hoisting her up.

"Can you stand?" she asked.

Gently, Amber pushed her ankle down against the sand. There was another stab of pain, even sharper than the last. That'd be a no to the standing, then. She shook her head.

"Well we can't just leave you here. Hey, Harry, come and help me out!"

A young boy sulked into view, his shoulders hunched and his head hung low. He stopped some distance away; it didn't look like he was too willing to help. Hell, Amber wasn't even sure if he'd heard Hailey.

"Look," Hailey said, "I know you're upset, but I really need you here, okay? Amber's too big for me, I can't carry her by myself."

Amber might have been insulted by that, but her attention was suddenly pulled towards her bag. It was rustling, and there were excited yelps coming from underneath it. With some difficulty, it slowly moved towards the boy, dragging itself across the sand.

Finally, she had the full picture. She grabbed the bag and lifted it, revealing the abra underneath, along with half a bottle of water and a dozen empty cellophane wrappers. The abra's face was covered in crumbs and jam and other bits of food. The little pest had eaten all her sandwiches. She was half tempted to kick it into the sea there and then.

But she didn't get the chance. As the abra crawled along the beach, the boy's gaze slowly travelled from Hailey to the pokémon, his eyes widening into disbelief. "A-Abby?" he stuttered.

The abra looked up at him and smiled.

"Abby!" He scooped it up into his arms, hugging it tightly as tears poured down his cheeks. "I thought I'd lost you!"

Amber couldn't help but smile along with them. It had been a while since she'd helped make someone so happy. It wasn't a bad feeling.

"Good job," Hailey whispered to her. "I knew you had a heart in there, somewhere."

"It's not like I did it for them," Amber mumbled, turning her head to hide her burning cheeks. "I just wanted to stop _him._"

But Hailey didn't hear her. She was too busy celebrating with the boy. She threw an arm around his shoulder, pulling him and his pokémon into a hug. The three of them stood there, laughing and smiling together. As Amber watched them, all those good feelings evaporated. The whole thing just seemed corny now, like the end of some stupid kid's movie. The sooner she could back on the road, the better. She just had to wait for her ride.

And speak of the devil, there he was. Both Gavin and Nathaniel walked out of the darkness of the cave and into the sun. Gavin looked just as undisturbed as ever; his shirt was still tucked into his jeans, his hair was still perfectly styled and he still had a bright grin on his face. Eight years and Amber still had no idea how he managed that. She'd seen him traipse through marshes without his shoes touching mud.

Nathaniel, on the other hand, didn't look quite so immaculate. He was panting heavily as he walked, and sweat was practically dripping from his forehead. He scowled as he caught Amber's gaze, but she didn't care. They'd all made it out alive, and that's all that mattered.

"Well, that was a little trickier than I thought it'd be," Gavin said as he joined the rest of them. "Hailey, Harry, good to see you again."

"I am never, _ever,_ doing that again," Nathaniel said. He doubled over, trying desperately to catch his breath. "Do you have _any_ idea what you made us go through?"

Amber had a feeling the question was directed at her. "You're both trainers," she said with a shrug. "I thought you'd be fine with a little battle."

"Oh, it wasn't just the battle," Nathaniel said. "The problem was that, after the moderators had kicked our asses, they grabbed us by the arms and tried to arrest us. If it wasn't for Gavin's quick thinking, who knows where we'd be."

"I told them that it was dark and we'd mistaken them for other trainers," Gavin explained. "I'm not sure they bought it, but they let us off with just a warning. You're welcome, by the way."

"Thanks," Amber said. "Seriously, I mean it. I'll try to be more careful from now on."

"Don't worry about it," Gavin said.

"Maybe worry about it a little," Nathaniel interjected. "Next time, I won't be so willing to help you out."

"Next time, I won't need your help." She turned back to Gavin and held her arms up towards him. "But I do need yours."

Gavin took one of her arms, Hailey took the other, and together with some effort, they managed to pull her up onto her feet. Again, she put an arm around Gavin and he wrapped his around her waist. Her ankle was still screaming with pain, but she was confident that she'd manage to walk for a little while. How she was going to travel around the whole region was another matter entirely.

"So, where to now?" Hailey asked.

"The pokécentre," Gavin said. "Like Nathaniel said, we kind of had our asses handed to us back there. And anyway, we need a place to stay till morning."

As much as Amber wanted to leave, she wasn't exactly in a position to argue. Besides, if Gavin was going, it wouldn't be all bad. She really was glad that he was there with her.

On the way to the centre, the others caught Hailey and Harry up on everything that happened in the cave. Harry didn't seem too interested, too busy snuggling with his abra, but Hailey listened intently and, by the time they walked through the sliding doors, she was all up to speed.

"I still can't believe you two know each other," she said as she sat down at one of the tables. "I mean, that's one weird coincidence, right?"

"I guess," Amber said, "but I really don't think that's important right now." Her and Gavin limped over to the table too and, with a sigh of relief, she let go of him and slumped down into the chair. It wasn't the most comfortable seat in the world, but it was a lot less painful than standing.

"Agreed," Gavin said. "The real problem here is this Quinn guy. We can't have someone running around stealing other people's pokémon."

Amber might have argued against that, but going after Quinn was tempting. At least, it would have been, if she'd been willing to actually fight him. As much as she hated Plasma sympathisers, she couldn't let herself break that rule, especially since she'd come so close to doing so back in the cave.

"I'm not too happy about it either," Nathaniel said from the back of the room. The moment he'd entered, he'd headed straight for the counter to examine the healing machinery that sat there. Judging by how much of a hurry he'd been in, his pokémon really must have taken quite the beating. "It's too late to do anything now, though."

"So, what do you suggest we do?" Gavin asked as he headed over to the counter himself. Unlike Nathaniel, he wasted no time studying the machine, and instead he just hopped over the counter, swung the lid open and clicked his pokéball into place.

"Do you have any idea how to work this thing?" Nathaniel asked, placing in his own pokéball.

Gavin shrugged. "How hard can it be?" With that, he slammed the lid shut, pressed the biggest button he could find, and the machine whirred to life. "See, easy. But seriously, what are we going to do? We can't just sit around on our back-sides till morning."

"Well, Hailey _did_ raise a good point," Nathaniel said. "I mean, I do find it a bit suspicious that you two are both here."

"What are you suggesting?" Amber asked. "That we're somehow behind all this?"

"I'm not the one who helped steal a boat," he said.

"No," she said, "you're the one who followed orders and took part in this tournament without any questions asked. I'm the one who's trying to break free from this damn place. But please, explain more about how _I'm _the suspicious one."

"I'm just saying," Nathaniel said, "that we don't know what's going on here. We need to follow any lead, however small it might be, and the fact is that in a region this big, two close friends meeting up within a couple of days is pretty damn weird."

"Guys, this isn't helping," Hailey said, sounding rather upset. "If we don't work as a team, we'll never be able to stop Quinn."

Amber opened her mouth, but before she could argue any further, she was cut off.

"I agree with Hailey," a little voice said from the corner of the room. The others turned to see Harry, sitting against the wall with a sleeping abra in his lap. "I mean, I didn't want to interrupt, but I just..."

"It's fine," Nathaniel said with a sigh. "On you go."

"Well, it really sucked, losing Abby like that. If it wasn't for all of you, I don't know what I'd have done. And... and this Quinn guy sounds really awful and it'd be great if someone could stop him."

"What do you know?" Gavin said. "Turns out the kid's the most sensible person in this room. So, if you two could stop bitching for one minute, maybe we could actually come up with some sort of plan?"

"Fine," Amber said. "But this does _not_ make us a team."

"Whatever," Nathaniel said, both him and Gavin joining them at the table. "We just need to work together for a little bit, then we can go back to doing whatever it was we were doing before. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Amber said.

"Glad to see we're all getting along," Gavin said. "Now, what exactly do we know about this guy?"

"Amber, you mentioned something about Plasma, right?" Nathaniel asked. "Care to explain what that's all about?"

"They're a group we have back in Unova," Gavin explained. "They're-"

"They're dicks," Amber interjected. "Giant, pokémon-stealing dicks."

"Well it's a little more complicated than that," Gavin said. "But that is the gist of it."

"So they're basically like Team Rocket?" Harry piped up.

"Or Team Galactic?" Hailey asked.

"Nope," Amber said. "They're worse. Other teams steal for money, or for fun. Plasma steal because they're ignorant, and deluded, and a bunch of dicks."

"All right, I think we've established that last part," Gavin said. "More to the point, though, Plasma members believe that pokémon training is equivalent to slavery. In their minds, they're not stealing pokémon, they're freeing them. Or, in their words, 'liberating' them."

"So that's why Quinn released Abby?" Hailey asked. "To... liberate her?"

"Yeah," Amber said. "Which is bullshit, by the way. Studies have proven that most of the pokémon Plasma release end up alienated from the pack. Huge numbers end up hurt, or eaten, and some even-"

"None of that's important," Gavin said. "What matters is stopping Quinn. Does anyone have any ideas?"

"Well," Nathaniel said, "if he truly believes in all this stuff, it might be possible to set up some sort of trap."

Gavin leaned back in his seat, rubbing his chin in thought. "I'm listening."

"If he's doing all this for the pokémon," Nathaniel said, "then he'd surely want to prioritise the oens that he feels are in danger. After all, he can't go after all of them, especially in a tight tournament like this."

"But Abby wasn't in danger," Harry said.

"No, I imagine she wasn't," Nathaniel said, a small smile forming on his lips. "Which begs the question, why did he pick her? My guess is that he saw something that made it _look_ like she was in danger, and he rushed into action without a second thought."

"So you're saying he's not thinking thing's through?" Gavin asked. "Interesting... That would certainly make it easier to trick him."

"And it does fit with a Plasma member's M.O," Amber said. "I met a trainer once who'd had his pokémon stolen just because he'd had it out in the rain for a little too long. It might have made sense, if it wasn't a water type. Trust me, Plasma's aren't exactly the smartest people in the world. Like I said, all a bunch of idiotic dicks."

"Amber, please," Gavin said. "I get that you have... _feelings_ about Plasma, but could you please tone it down with the d-word? There are kids in the room."

"Fine," Amber said. "But that's the best word to describe them."

"So is that the plan then?" Hailey asked. "We're going to lay a trap by acting like our pokemon are in danger?"

"It's a long-shot, I admit," Nathaniel said. "But it's the best we've got. Now, it's getting late, so I suggest we all get some sleep and discuss this more in the morning. Sound good to everyone?"

Everyone agreed, and the five of them headed up the stairs towards the centre's guest rooms. With some help from Gavin, Amber limped into her own and let herself fall down on the bed.

"You okay?" he asked.

She just stared at the ceiling. The truth was no, of course she wasn't okay, but he'd only worry if she told him that. Two days in and she'd pissed off the moderators, bumped into a Plasma-dick, and she could barely walk on account of her bloody ankle. Forget about escaping: at this rate she'd be dead within the week.

After a moment of silence, Gavin said, "Here," and reached into his bag. "I almost forgot, but I found this earlier. It won't do much to heal you, but it should kill some of the pain."

In his hand was a small, purple bottle with a spray-top. A potion. They were typically for pokémon, but there wasn't any reason a human couldn't use them too. She snatched it off him, tugged off the wrapping around her ankle, and sprayed out the entire bottle onto her foot. She let out a satisfied moan as the pain faded to a dull throb.

"Thank God," she said. She'd almost forgotten what it felt like to not be suffering.

"Just remember, that isn't an instant cure," Gavin said. "It's just pain relief, so be careful with that foot for a while. Now, as for my reward..."

"You don't deserve one," she said. "You had that thing the whole the time and you only just gave it to me. Do you have any idea how much pain I was in?"

"It's been a long day, okay?" he said. "Besides, if I'd given it to you earlier, you wouldn't have needed my help getting out the cave, and you wouldn't have had a chance to wrap your arms around my hot bod."

"Oh, because I was _so_ desperate to do that."

"Please, like you aren't still attracted to me."

She gave a single, derisive laugh. "Not even dignifying that with a response, Gavin."

"Whatever," he said. "Now, scooch up, I'm dying for a lie down."

"You know, there are enough bedrooms for all of us," she said, but she wriggled over to the other side anyway.

"True," he said, hopping up next to her, "but where else am I going to find such _sparkling_ conversation."

It was so weird, lying next to him like that. It almost felt like they were kids again, huddling next to each other to watch cartoons. They were still good friends, but it had been ages since they'd done anything like that. Not since they were thirteen, at least, during what she referred to as "the dark year".

For the last six months, she'd been so worried things would be awkward between them, but there and then, she felt so comfortable just being with him again. He was like a little piece of home, a reminder that the whole word hadn't gone completely insane.

"So," he said, "this is all crazy, huh?"

"That's one word for it," she said.

"You scared?"

"Of what?"

"Of never getting home. Of being stuck in this... this abandoned region forever."

She considered it for a moment. "Nah, not really. Not that you're here. We've gotten out of worse."

"I don't know. This is a tough one, even for us."

"Tougher than that time we got lost in the Castelia Sewers?"

"Okay, maybe not that tough," he admitted. "Although, if I recall correctly, that was only that bad because _someone_ didn't want to get sewage on their new jeans."

"Yeah," she said, "and that _someone_ was you."

"Ah, right, so it was. My bad."

"Seriously, though, we're going to make it home. Just as soon as we're done with Quinn, we can take off and figure out a way out of here."

"Yeah, about that." He clenched his teeth and gave her a look that could only mean one thing; he was about to say something that was really going to piss her off.

"What?" she asked with a glare. He didn't answer. "_What?_"

"I was, uh, just thinking that maybe - just _maybe_ \- we should play along with the tournament. Just for a bit."

"What?!" she snapped, jolting upright. "Have you lost your mind?!"

"Hear me out, okay?"

"No! No, I don't think I will! We're stuck here, and your _brilliant _plan is to 'play along'?! Have you gone completely insane?!"

"Look, from what you said earlier, it doesn't sound like there's any way out of here," he said. "Mysterious fog, rows of jagged rocks, Emolga refusing to fly to the other side, it all sounds very... worrying."

"Well, I am sorry," she said. "I wouldn't want my escape plan to _worry _you."

"That's just it, Amber," he said desperately. "You don't have an escape plan. You stole a boat, you capsized the boat, and then you nearly killed yourself trying to escape the moderators. What part of that was a good plan?"

She folded her arms and turned away from him, mainly because she didn't have an answer. It was true that things weren't going according to plan, but that was just for now. They'd start looking up eventually. Right?

Gavin sighed. "I'm not saying we shouldn't try to escape. But just in case that doesn't work out, we should have a back-up plan, and getting eight badges and winning the tournament doesn't seem like too bad an option."

"You know I can't do that."

"I know, you made an oath, but for God's sake, think this through. Let's say there is no other way out, and someone else wins. I'm sure they'll try to send someone to help, but the way things are going there's a good chance they won't be able to. All I'm saying is, if we're stuck here forever, what happens to your mum? And your sister?"

"They'll live," she said, but she already knew what his answer would be.

"No, they won't. They'll go looking for you, and they won't stop, no matter how impossible their mission is. That's no life, Amber. You can't want that for them."

"Only one of us can get back," she said. "Either way, one of our families will live without us."

"If I get back, I'll make sure to look after your family the best I can. And I know you'd do the same for me. So please, listen to me, we need to fight."

There was a moment of silence, him waiting for her response and her trying not to scream at him for being such a god-damn idiot.

"I think you should go," she said.

"Amber..."

"Please. It's been a long day. I need my sleep."

"Amber, please-"

"Just... just go."

To his credit, he did as she asked. Silently, he stood up off the bed, left the room, and let the door swing shut behind him. Amber sat in the silence and, for the second night in a row, she cried softly to herself, wishing that she was anywhere else but there.


End file.
